by Caroline Castle & illustrated by Susie Jenkin-Pearce ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1997
Monsters, big and small, can use a touch of empathy—so learns Phoebe when she finds a small shell and brings it to her mother. Her baby brother, Charlie, snatches it away and crunches it into shards. Dismayed, Phoebe rushes off to procure a new treasure, fashioning a magic wand from a stick and leaf. Home again, she finds Charlie seeking to make amends, but Phoebe dismisses him. Leaving him bereft, Phoebe is taken, courtesy of the magic wand, on a tour of a strange garden. There she meets a trio of monsters; gazing into their eyes, Phoebe sees their anguish: The fire monster is frightened, the swamp monster sad, the ice monster lonely. She returns to Charlie, dispels the creatures with her wand, and makes up with her brother. The story becomes potent with the implied correlation between Charlie and the monsters, in Phoebe's willingness to sense another's unhappiness through her anger, and the ambiguous ending. Jenkin-Pearce, known for more comic works, provides in her watercolors the right measures of fire and gentleness that the story demands. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1997
ISBN: 0-09-176714-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hutchinson/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1997
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by Meredith Hooper & illustrated by Bee Willey ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2000
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
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by Melissa Thomson and illustrated by Frank Morrison ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2009
Keena Ford’s second-grade class is taking a field trip to the United States Capitol. This good-hearted girl works hard to behave, but her impulsive decisions have a way of backfiring, no matter how hard she tries to do the right thing. In this second book in a series, Keena cuts off one of her braids and later causes a congressman to fall down the stairs. The first-person journal format is a stretch—most second graders can barely write, let alone tell every detail of three days of her life. Children will wonder how Keena can cut one of her “two thick braids” all the way off by pretend-snipping in the air. They will be further confused because the cover art clearly shows Keena with a completely different hairdo on the field trip than the one described. Though a strong African-American heroine is most welcome in chapter books and Keena and her family are likable and realistic, this series needs more polish before Keena writes about her next month in school. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3264-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
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