A lively version of a biblical story of wisdom, wits, treachery, and repentance.
The Old Testament story of Joseph, the brother sold into slavery who becomes the pharaoh’s grand vizier, is interpreted in graphic-novel format.
Laff retains the familiar elements of the tale, laying them out in graphic panels. Joseph has special dreams and also becomes an interpreter of dreams. All his brothers are jealous of Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son, leading to his sale to some Ishmaelite traders. He is taken to Egypt, where he becomes useful in a wealthy merchant’s household but is compromised by the merchant’s wife and sent to prison. After nine years, Joseph interprets the dreams of the imprisoned butler and baker of the pharaoh. The lucky butler is released and tells the pharaoh of Joseph when the ruler has his own dreams that need interpretation. Joseph becomes the pharaoh’s top adviser, saving Egypt from famine. In her brightly colored, detailed panels Laff depicts her humans as anthropomorphic animals: the Canaanites, or Hebrews, are rabbits, the Ishmaelite traders are dogs, and the Egyptians are cats. They wear appropriate clothing, and the Egyptian details and backgrounds are particularly elaborate. Joseph’s well-known coat has rainbows, clouds, stars, and fur trimming; it looks an awful lot like a wizard’s cloak, but it is eye-catching, especially in a dark double-page spread, set in Joseph’s cell, when he is dreaming of the sun, moon, and stars.
A lively version of a biblical story of wisdom, wits, treachery, and repentance. (Graphic fiction/religion. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4677-7845-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience.
When siblings Jessie and Evan (The Lemonade War, 2007, and The Lemonade Crime, 2011) accompany their mother on the time-honored midwinter holiday visit to their grandmother’s home in the mountains, the changes are alarming.
Fire damage to the house and Grandma’s inability to recognize Evan are as disquieting as the disappearance of the iron bell, hung long ago by their grandmother on Lowell Hill and traditionally rung at the New Year. Davies keeps a tight focus on the children: Points of view switch between Evan, with his empathetic and emotional approach to understanding his world, and Jessie, for whom routine is essential and change a puzzle to be worked out. When Grandma ventures out into the snow just before twilight, it is Evan who realizes the danger and manages to find a way to rescue her. Jessie, determined to solve the mystery of the missing bell, enlists the help of Grandma's young neighbor Maxwell, with his unusual habitual gestures and his surprising ability to solve jigsaw puzzles. She is unprepared, however, for the terror of seeing the neighbor boys preparing a mechanical torture device to tear a live frog to pieces. Each of the siblings brings a personal resilience and heroism to the resolution.
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-56737-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
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