An inconsistent but imaginative, clever tale in the spirit of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories.
Schwulst’s picture book portrays an African folktale about the tortoise and his shell.
Thomas the tortoise, soft and wrinkled in body, searches for shelter on a “cold, dark and stormy night.” Finding none, he seeks warmth and a nap in the morning on a rock warmed by the sun. Monkeys wake him by chattering about the lion king’s malady, from which he will surely die. Skeptical, Thomas sets out to see for himself. At the king’s camp, Thomas finds Victor the Vulture. Victor confirms the king’s grave illness and says the only cure is for the lion to consume a pile of nuts, but no one can crack them open. Edward the Elephant could do it, but he stubbornly refuses. Kindhearted Thomas gets an idea and waddles off to bring Edward to the camp. As he goes, the monkeys laugh at the idea that a “small squishy tortoise” like Thomas could make Edward do anything. Thomas says that if he does bring Edward back, they all must kneel and must call him, Thomas, king. The monkeys laugh at this joke but say they will do as Thomas asks. Thomas finds Wilma Warthog, who agrees to dig a hole, deep and wide, and fill it with the nuts. Thomas finds Edward and tells him all the animals want him to be king and that they’ve invited him to a feast. Edward immediately booms agreement and scoops Thomas up on his back for the trek to the king’s camp. The monkeys greet them, kneel and yell, “All hail the King.” Edward sticks out his chest, boasting and strutting, until he falls into the hole, where he stomps and stomps until all the nuts are crushed and made into a stew. The stew heals the king, and Thomas wins his protective shell. The story and characters are delightful, but the illustrations are dark and out of harmony with the optimism of Thomas’ tale. Rhyme and rhythm are used erratically, which makes for awkward reading. Confusing punctuation errors appear throughout the text.
An inconsistent but imaginative, clever tale in the spirit of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1479260904
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Easy to read and mildly enjoyable, best for kids learning to read on their own.
A rhyming, songlike book of illustrated short stories for kids to read aloud.
In this collection of bedtime stories, children and animals learn to work together as a team, to treat their mothers with respect, and how to relax when they’re stressed out. Davis presents the 10 stories as poems, some of which are written in stanza form; the repetition, spelled-out words—“It’s my home that completes me. H-O-M-E, HOME”—and abundance of exclamation points help make them good for kids to read aloud with their parents. For instance, in “Row with me,” a poem about finding friends to help row a boat with, Davis writes: “We all row so well. We all yelled, ‘hurray!’ / The bell sounded off as tingles and jingles! How great! / at the finish line our mates row to go and go. / We won the race with a ho ho ho hi ho!!!” A singsong quality to the writing makes it flow easily, and each story is very short, in either one or two columns on a single page—an ideal length for reading a few before bed. A colorful illustration faces each story and helps explain the text, which could be helpful for young children trying to understand the book themselves. Some of the stories have a clear, well-outlined plot, such as “Moody Blues”: “Those moody, moody blues showed up too. / Sweetheart too much fretting is upsetting. / Don’t feel sad and mad that it upset you?! You upset me too! / You can’t let those moody, moody blues come over you.” Other stories, however, such as “Beautiful Blue Diamond,” about a ballerina getting a new “Bluetifull blue” ring and twirling about, don’t have much of a plot or enough to capture the imagination of young readers. Kids looking for engaging stories might not be satisfied here, but those learning to sound out words and to read on their own will appreciate the rhymes and silly phrases.
Easy to read and mildly enjoyable, best for kids learning to read on their own.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1493126743
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A charming tale of space-based adventure.
Debut author Sees delivers an exuberant YA sci-fi novel.
Seventeen-year-old Ree Lindbergh is part of the 300-person crew of the starship Omega Centauri, patrolling the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Their mission is to prevent further hostilities between humans and the shape-shifting Bufoanthroids from the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Although Ree is happy enough spending her days in the company of her best friend, Zac, and dreaming of one day seeing the planet Earth, she’s still troubled. Every night she has nightmares about her dead mother, who was killed by Bufoanthroids on the day Ree was born. When Zac and his ship vanish, Ree undertakes a dangerous rescue mission. As she unravels mysteries and faces dangers, she learns the truth about her own past—and discovers feelings she’s never had before. The novel’s characters are well-developed and true to their types; Ree is a very relatable Everygirl with a far more interesting personality than, say, Twilight’s Bella Swan. Her first-person narration and dialogue are clear and entertaining (“[T]he familiar smell of sweet saskatoon berries, tangy yet tart, reheated freeze-dried goodness, and hot, gooey pizza consumed my nostrils”). As befits a novel written by an educator, the prose is clean and professional; the action scenes are a bit sparse, but the conclusion of the story promises more to come. The novel’s worldbuilding is pure, glorious space opera in the classic style: Starships warp away to patrol and invade entire galaxies, and characters listen to voice-activated radio broadcasts while discussing the history of the Worldwide Space Federation. There’s enough detail to establish the setting and flesh out the story, but the author leaves it open-ended enough that sequels are almost mandatory. Sees demonstrates a quiet sense of fun to go along with all the YA adventure and romance; notably, one particular line of dialogue (“If you want to kiss a frog and hope he turns into a prince…then go ahead”) underlines a running pun throughout the novel: The Bufoanthroids’ name appears to be a combination of the Latin bufo (“toad”) and anthropo (“human”).
A charming tale of space-based adventure.Pub Date: March 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615930596
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Centauri Publishing Group
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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