Guiberson (Salmon Story, 1993, etc.) gives a fine account of the plight of the spotted owl and the ancient forest, as well as that of the loggers and their communities. In fact, while she spends more time on the owl than the logger, she never quite convinces her reader that preserving the owl is necessary—probably because she takes it for granted that the bias will be in the owl's favor. Still, she successfully explains why the ancient forests are necessary to the survival of the owl; why the owl's situation was not noted until fairly recently (their camouflage and nocturnal habits contributed to this); and how environmentalists and local artisans are working to preserve both the owl and environmentally responsible industry. This is a well-balanced look at the controversy surrounding conservation attempts, perhaps even more balanced than Guiberson intends. (Illustrations, not seen) (Nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8050-3171-5
Page Count: 70
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An artistic showcase that also serves as a teaser for a once-popular, and not entirely dated, children’s classic.
Intricate cut-paper overlays highlight the art that accompanies this abbreviated version of the travels of a peripatetic young Swede.
Being much abridged and a bit modernized (“ ‘Weird-looking bird!’ said the fisherman, tying him up and placing him in a basket”), these 22 recast chapters from the 1906 story and its sequel, Further Adventures of Nils, read as a series of partially sketched incidents with abrupt transitions. Still, the overall plot, which features a trickster lad who is transformed into an elf and flies all over Sweden on the backs of birds, remains intact, and the narrative captures the flavor of the originals, strewn with place names—Lagerlöf was commissioned to write the works as geography lessons—and narrow escapes from danger. Latyk’s illustrations look like retro screen prints, with thin layers of blue and pink the predominant colors and small, stylized figures placed against misty backdrops. On five spreads, wordless expanses of landscape flank black stencils pierced with the outlines of finely detailed buildings, creatures, and natural details (a sixth cutting fills a large window in the cover). The relationship of these special pages to the tale is, at best, tangential, but they do add a memorable element to the presentation.
An artistic showcase that also serves as a teaser for a once-popular, and not entirely dated, children’s classic. (map) (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-91027-719-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Anemic selections of basic facts paired to a visual trick that is only fitfully exploited with imagination.
A “whistle-stop” tour of natural, historical, and cultural marvels, from Denali to the Everglades, the Golden Gate Bridge to Mardi Gras.
The 14 entries—arranged in no particular order and never located on a map—are kitted out with a gimmick: alternating versos are solid black with white outlined figures, so that holding the colored illustrations on the rectos up to a light allows the figures to shine through and, ideally at least, complete a composition. This works nicely when, for instance, a view of the White House’s exterior on the colored side is matched to a (simplified) schematic of the rooms inside, but too often the additions are animals or groups of tourists in the foregrounds, offering neither insight nor much of a visual surprise. Also, whenever pages are held up, the simple descriptive commentary is hard to read as the text on the other side, nearly all of which is placed in the same general area, shows through in reverse. Both Johnson and, in the co-published Secrets of Our Earth, Wesley Robins vary the visible skin tones of their otherwise generic human figures.
Anemic selections of basic facts paired to a visual trick that is only fitfully exploited with imagination. (Informational novelty. 7-9)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61067-543-7
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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