A philosophical tale cleverly highlighting the shifting nature of perspectives as they evolve over time.
A man loses his horse and gains wisdom to share in this import from China via India.
Inspired by a millennia-old Chinese folktale that gave rise to an enduring proverb, this picture book retells the story of Sion (pronounced “Sai Ong” and meaning “Old Man Sai”), a fortuneteller whose horse wanders across the border into enemy territory. Rather than dwelling on his loss, Sion ponders it as perhaps not a bad occurrence, and he is proven right when his horse returns some time later with more horses in tow. Sion’s characteristic openness to alternative interpretations of events and his tendency to reserve judgment baffle those around him, especially as he muses on his own son’s serious fall from a horse as possibly “a very good thing!” When enemy armies attack and most other young people are drafted into battle, Sion’s son is spared due to his broken leg, once again demonstrating that misfortunes—like blessings—are not always fixed or immutable. The lively illustrations use a mixture of Chinese painting styles and techniques in depicting characters, scenes, and landscapes. The varying layouts of spreads reinforce the story’s underlying concept of change-as-constant and help to pace the page turns for a stimulating read-aloud.
A philosophical tale cleverly highlighting the shifting nature of perspectives as they evolve over time. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-81-936542-5-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Karadi Tales
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Rappaport makes this long struggle palpable and relevant, while Faulkner adds a winning mix of gravitas and high spirits.
Rappaport examines the salient successes and raw setbacks along the 144-year-long road between the nation’s birth and women’s suffrage.
This lively yet forthright narrative pivots on a reality that should startle modern kids: women’s right to vote was only achieved in 1920, 72 years after Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Indeed, time’s passage figures as a textual motif, connecting across decades such determined women as Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone. They spoke tirelessly, marched, organized, and got arrested. Rappaport includes events such as 1913’s Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., but doesn’t shy from divisive periods like the Civil War. Faulkner’s meticulously researched gouache-and-ink illustrations often infuse scenes with humor by playing with size and perspective. As Stanton and Lucretia Mott sail into London in 1840 for the World Anti-Slavery Conference, Faulkner depicts the two women as giants on the ship’s upper deck. On the opposite page, as they learn they’ll be barred as delegates, they’re painted in miniature, dwarfed yet unflappable beneath a gallery full of disapproving men. A final double-page spread mingles such modern stars as Shirley Chisholm and Sonia Sotomayor amid the historical leaders.
Rappaport makes this long struggle palpable and relevant, while Faulkner adds a winning mix of gravitas and high spirits. (biographical thumbnails, chronology, sources, websites, further reading, author’s note) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7868-5142-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
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