From a team with three Caldecott Honor books to their credit, a gentle exploration of how a particular place can have special meaning. The narrator describes finding one such place in a cave under the roots of a cottonwood tree, where a previous occupant has left several brown-paper notes (``I will be back no matter what/if you are cold you can use the blanket but do not use my other stuff'') and some treasured possessions; she reminisces about other secret places ``a sandy gully cutting through the hard flat Texas earth...a whole world by itself and I was the only person three''; a boy she knows has ``fifty bales of hay [that] make mountains and tunnels and craters and caves.'' Baylor's spare, lyrical prose celebrates the magic of these private worlds, sometimes shared with a friend or other fellow creatures. Parnall's flat areas of warm color form themselves protectively around the delicately drawn ``places and the imaginative young people who treasure them. An unusual, beautifully wrought concept book. (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: April 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-684-16111-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
None
Exuding her usual air of competence, Ms. Frizzle drives the magic school bus to the beach, over the sand, and into the waves to take her wisecracking class on a tour of an intertidal zone, the continental shelf, the deep sea bottom, and a coral reef. Degen's paintings feature plenty of colorful (and unobtrusively labeled) sea life. As always, the pace is breathless, the facts well chosen, the excitement of scientific study neatly evoked, and Ms. Frizzle's wardrobe equal to every extraordinary occasion. At the end, her students assemble a bulletin board chart to summarize their observations and—apparently in response to adult anxieties—Cole closes with a quiz clarifying the difference between fact and fiction in the story. Yes, it's a formula, but a winning one. (Nonfiction. 6-8)
None NonePub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-590-41430-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An impending school visit by a celebrity chef sends budding cook Ollie into a tailspin. He and his classmates are supposed to bring a favorite family food for show and tell, but his family doesn’t have a clear choice—besides, his little sister Rosy doesn’t like much of anything. What to do? As in their previous two visits to Room 75, Kenah builds suspense while keeping the tone light, and Carter adds both bright notes of color and familiar home and school settings in her cartoon illustrations. Eventually, Ollie winkles favorite ingredients out of his clan, which he combines into a mac-and-cheese casserole with a face on top that draws delighted praise from the class’s renowned guest. As Ollie seems to do his kitchen work without parental assistance, a cautionary tip or two (and maybe a recipe) might not have gone amiss here, but the episode’s mouthwatering climax and resolution will guarantee smiles of contentment all around. (Easy reader. 6-7)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-053561-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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