This hawk’s-eye view allows readers to circle over a small town during a year in which, at close inspection, apparently changeless streets and structures surrounded by flat horizons and “uninterrupted sky” yield up a host of stories, depicted in Lilliputian scale. Between one spring and the next, a carnival and a winter storm pass through, a house is trucked in whole, another is rebuilt after a fire, yards are cleaned, a wedding celebrated, a new tombstone placed in the cemetery, a jungle gym built on the playground behind the red brick school. Geisert uses ink and watercolor to achieve slightly finer detail than found in his etchings, in pictures that richly repay close inspection (but may not reward those seeking out his trademark pigs). However, the caption-like text can be eye-glazing and oddly phrased: “The town and its farm neighbors are economic and social partners. They provide goods and services for each other. The back yard is a favorite place where families extend their work and play.” Still, the Geiserts observe and evoke the pace and rhythms of life in a prairie town with abundant affection. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-395-85907-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1998
Sloat collaborates with Huffman, a Yu’pik storyteller, to infuse a traditional “origins” tale with the joy of creating. Hearing the old women of her village grumble that they have only tasteless crowberries for the fall feast’s akutaq—described as “Eskimo ice cream,” though the recipe at the end includes mixing in shredded fish and lard—young Anana carefully fashions three dolls, then sings and dances them to life. Away they bound, to cover the hills with cranberries, blueberries, and salmonberries. Sloat dresses her smiling figures in mixes of furs and brightly patterned garb, and sends them tumbling exuberantly through grassy tundra scenes as wildlife large and small gathers to look on. Despite obtrusively inserted pronunciations for Yu’pik words in the text, young readers will be captivated by the action, and by Anana’s infectious delight. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-88240-575-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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