by Campbell Manning ; illustrated by Nadia Ronquilllo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2016
Converting such a flimsy ambition into any worthy goal would require a mighty leap of imagination indeed.
A cocky lad announces his intention to jump from the moon down to Earth.
In the rhyming text, the plan comes off more as a quick publicity stunt than a pep talk on the value of aiming high in life: “But I’ll show them. / I know I can! / Soon they’ll all see / that I’m THE MAN!” It starts with a few vague preparations and a jaunt to the moon (aboard, according to the blurry cartoon illustrations, a magically converted toy truck), then concludes with the titular leap and parachuting down through the Earth’s atmosphere into the arms of a cheering crowd. Said crowd displays a pale but inclusive mix of skin tones in the penultimate scene; the narrator himself is a nerdy white child of indeterminate age who sports huge spectacles and a fixed, open-mouthed grin throughout. Young audiences will have no trouble finding encouragement to fix their eyes on worthier prizes elsewhere. Fittingly, the arrival of lunch at the end shoves this project onto the back burner.
Converting such a flimsy ambition into any worthy goal would require a mighty leap of imagination indeed. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4867-0948-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
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by Paul Goble ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1978
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
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by Angela Johnson & illustrated by Barry Moser ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001
Vague text and anemic pictures make this at best a half-hearted tribute to the construction workers of the last century or so. In her brief, poetic text Johnson writes of “those shadowy building men . . . moving the earth to connect water,” of “railroad workers . . . who were there to connect all.” She continues: “As buildings tower above us / they tell the tales / of the cities . . . They whisper down past it all and say, / ‘They built us, your fathers . . .’ ” There is little here to engage child readers, either intellectually or emotionally, and Moser’s remote, indistinct portraits of ordinary-looking men (only men) dressed in sturdy working clothes and, mostly, at rest, only intermittently capture any sense of individual or collective effort. In evident recognition of these inadequacies, a prose afterword has been added to explain what the book is about—a superfluous feature had Moser and Johnson produced work up to their usual standards. Let readers spend time more profitably with the likes of John Henry or Mike Mulligan. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-66521-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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by Angela Johnson ; illustrated by Nina Crews
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