More-conventional versions will be more likely to keep readers hooked.
An old Irish tale retold, featuring a renowned poet/teacher, a young warrior-in-training, and a very special fish.
It all begins when a salmon eats nine windfallen hazelnuts, thus acquiring “all the knowledge and secrets of the world.” Knowing that one taste of the salmon will transmit all that, “wise poet” Finnegas sets to fishing, eventually catches it, and orders his student Fionn to cook it without taking a single bite—only to be disappointed when Fionn burns himself on a drop of fat and reflexively puts his thumb in his mouth. Buckley offers a decidedly offbeat rendition of this popular tale, with dinosaur skeletons in one of her naïve-style collage scenes and a droll set of goals for warrior training that includes running beneath a knee-high branch. She also places Finnegas, in essence a bit player, in the forefront of a legend that’s really (and with stronger logic) been about the great hero Finn McCool since its earliest recorded versions. Unfortunately, the author seems to lose both interest and attention at the end. Following his climactic letdown (which is marred by a typo), Finnegas just drops abruptly out of view. Even a closing line about how the story’s now told far and wide dubs it only “Fionn and the Salmon of Knowledge.” There is no source note.
More-conventional versions will be more likely to keep readers hooked. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-76036-070-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Starfish Bay
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit.
The bubble-helmeted feline explains what rockets do and the role they have played in sending people (and animals) into space.
Addressing a somewhat younger audience than in previous outings (Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space, 2013, etc.), Astro Cat dispenses with all but a light shower of “factoroids” to describe how rockets work. A highly selective “History of Space Travel” follows—beginning with a crew of fruit flies sent aloft in 1947, later the dog Laika (her dismal fate left unmentioned), and the human Yuri Gagarin. Then it’s on to Apollo 11 in 1969; the space shuttles Discovery, Columbia, and Challenger (the fates of the latter two likewise elided); the promise of NASA’s next-gen Orion and the Space Launch System; and finally vague closing references to other rockets in the works for local tourism and, eventually, interstellar travel. In the illustrations the spacesuited professor, joined by a mouse and cat in similar dress, do little except float in space and point at things. Still, the art has a stylish retro look, and portraits of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford diversify an otherwise all-white, all-male astronaut corps posing heroically or riding blocky, geometric spacecraft across starry reaches.
Energetic enough to carry younger rocketeers off the launch pad if not into a very high orbit. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-55-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A rendition more poignant than patriotic with, at least in the rhymed portions, the cadence of a lullaby.
An illustrated version of the ever popular Scottish “Skye Boat Song,” with added lyrics and historical background.
Written in the 19th century (and set to a folk melody), the verses commemorate the flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie, then in his mid-20s, from the 1746 battle of Culloden. They begin after a prose introduction that sets the scene and follows the fugitive until—disguised (according to legend) as resourceful cottager Flora MacDonald’s maidservant—he escapes in a boat to the Isle of Skye. Along with a closing note, the anonymous modern co-author also adds a near ambush by British troops to the storyline in the lyrics and tones down the martial closing lines to a milder “Rightfully king! True hearts will stay / Faithful for evermore!” There is no visible blood or explicit violence in Belli’s depictions of the battle and its aftermath, but in the clean-lined watercolor scenes he fashions evocatively rough seas and stormy skies until landfall brings a final calm. The British soldiers’ red coats and the bright tartans in which the handsome, downcast prince and other male Scots in the all-white cast are outfitted shine against the muted backgrounds.
A rendition more poignant than patriotic with, at least in the rhymed portions, the cadence of a lullaby. (map) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78250-367-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
