There’s more than basketball to this charming story set in Mexico. Young Gustavo (Tavo) lives to play the game, even though he has a hard time in his falling-apart sneakers. When his father enlists his help in revitalizing the old irrigation ditches during a summer of drought, Tavo sadly has little time to play. The hard work of ditch digging, however, does bring water from the mountains to the parched fields, and salvages both the corn crop and his father’s reputation. Tavo loses his shoes, now in pieces, in the swiftly flowing water, effectively ending his basketball playing. However, a kind deed to an old woman we never see (a bruja—witch—perhaps?) results in the recovery of the shoes, now refurbished and infused with mysterious energy. Gloriously quilted (a future fashion trend?), the dazzling shoes and the muscle Tavo has acquired digging the ditches give his basketball game new power. The colorful, impressionistic illustrations are full of movement and feeling. Bravo, Tavo, indeed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-525-47478-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
Where Dave Ross’s and Laura Rader’s A Book of Friends (p. 537) faltered, Kolar’s big, gregarious book succeeds; it’s the ideal size for covering the giant topic of friendship. The pages are rife with drawings, while the text is a collage of tips, captions, and declarations. The spreads show a pageant of the things friends do: bike-riding, dancing, sending messages, and playing musical instruments. The downside of friendship shows up, too, for fights break out and sometimes people just need to be alone. Such general concepts are the playground for Kolar’s parade of silly pictures. “Check me out!” says a checker board, doffing his hat, while on another page a flower explains, “My friends picked me.” The endpapers are alive with stick people, juggling, sweeping, and eating gigantic ice cream cones. A board game breaks up the text by contributing concepts about friendship, e.g., “Stick out your tongue at someone/Lose a turn,” while a separate tale within the pages offers children a mini-storytime. The book is so bright and full of drolleries that children may pore over it for hours, and will return to these pages often. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-525-45938-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Agapanthus Hum is always in motion, a packet of energy who also happens to wear glasses, which cause her no end of trouble. When she smothers her parents—called good little Daddy and good little Mommy—with kisses, her glasses come off and swing from one ear. When doing a handstand, the glasses drop off entirely and get crushed when Agapanthus crashes down upon them: “Her hum puffed out like a birthday candle, and her head went quiet,” but only briefly. Her parents are sweet and kind and utterly forgiving (absurdly so, as Cowley makes clear) and mention that she is one fine acrobat all the same. The ultimate solution is for good little Mommy to hold Agapanthus’s glasses during practice. When Agapanthus attends an acrobat show and learns that at least one professional acrobat who wears glasses gives them to her mother when she performs, one little girl’s fate is sealed. This story is just like Agapanthus, full of beans, song, and heart; she’s so disarming in both text and Plecas’s comic illustrations that readers will hope for an encore. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23211-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
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