by Campbell Geeslin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999
In perfect harmony with Geeslin’s story Mathers captures the rose, purple, lemon-yellow, and desert-green of Mexico. Nanita’s father the shoemaker is so busy in their tiny Mexican town that he has no time to make her shoes, even though it will soon be her First Communion. Nanita has watched him work, so one night she makes a wonderful pair of shoes herself out of scraps in bright colors, and falls asleep still wearing them. The shoes have a spirit all their own, so when Nanita awakes she is far away by a house in the desert. The ranchero takes her in, but the old woman takes her shoes and makes Nanita do all the work. The ranchero’s parrot (who sports an eyepatch from his pirate days) befriends Nanita, and they plot their escape, but not until the old woman teaches Nanita how to make flan. Nanita is welcomed with glad cries by her father, and she attends her First Communion in soft slippers that he has made for her. The spirited parrot, a lightning-fast pace, droll illustrations, and a recipe for flan on the endpapers combine for a wondrous piece of bookmaking. With its gestures to other tales and to magic realism, the volume is thoroughly beguiling in both word and image. (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81546-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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by Corinne Demas Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999
PLB 0-7868-2125-6 As is true for Pam Conrad’s Tub People, the events in a matryoshka doll’s life depend on external manipulations and circumstances; in this case, it makes the story of a perilous journey fall somewhat flat. A set of the nesting dolls is carved in a Russian village and then sent to a toy shop in America. The outer doll, Anna, has been instructed by the maker to watch over her siblings—“Keep your sisters safe inside you”—but there is nothing she can do when the smallest doll, Nina, is accidentally brushed off the counter and unceremoniously kicked out the door. It is an odyssey in which she has absolutely no active part, nor does she have reactions, for all she possesses is a blank matryoshka face. In the meantime, a young girl who has bought the rest of the set on sale charmingly tucks a little wad of cotton into the next-to-smallest doll so she won’t feel empty. Brown’s atmospheric but docile watercolors often view the matryoshka dolls from a distance, furthering the sense that the story is about events surrounding the dolls, instead of the dolls themselves. An author’s note on the history of matryoshkas is a welcome touch. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7868-0153-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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More by Corinne Demas Bliss
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by Marilynn Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999
The grasslands of the Canadian west serve as a setting for this coming-of-age story from Reynolds. A parched summer means trouble for Percy’s homesteading family. His father decides to plow a fireguard around the house and Percy is eager to help, but his parents advise him to wait a couple more years to shoulder a man’s work. Then the dreaded happens, as a prairie fire advances over the horizon toward their farm. There is no time to waste; his parents man the fireguard while Percy is put in charge of dousing the spot fires set off by flying ash. This he does with responsibility and imagination, deploying a clever trick to calm his skittish horse. After the fire passes and time comes to collect the oxen from the slough, Percy is asked to help: “It’s a job for two men. Why don’t you come with me, Son?” This exciting story is realistically told; Percy indeed earns his stature, while Kilby’s illustrations allow the prairie and the wildfire each to take on a haunting presence. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-55143-137-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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