The author’s attempts to create atmosphere with constant references to half-glimpsed figures, encroaching fog, unexplained noises, etc., come off as labored in these ten tales of the supernatural. Spinning stories to a young visitor from various topics of conversation or small objects in his cluttered study, melancholy old Uncle Montague describes what happens to an arrogant lad who climbs a malevolent elm, a case of demonic possession related to a carved wooden grotesque, a traveler’s frantic and fatal flight from his own battered corpse and like incidents or cautionary tales. All, along with a linking narrative, are related in the same somber, even tones and formal language—except perhaps for one sparkler featuring a blind old woman who turns a young hooligan into an apple tree and then picks up her pruning shears—none are likely to cause even minor disquiet. Priestley usually does better. (Short stories. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59990-118-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Prigger bases her engaging debut on an incident in her own family. The setting is 1920, so Minnie can’t be considered obsessive-compulsive; instead, she’s a woman with a system for keeping things shipshape and just so. Her farmhouse is trim and neat, as is her garden and barn. Her neighbors snipe that it’s a good thing that Minnie, a spinster, has no children, who would surely interfere with her system. Then the telegram arrives: “Come quick. Your brother and his wife have had an accident. Their children are orphans in need of a home.” Aunt Minnie goes and gathers the children, all nine of them, in a thrice. The neighbors look on with amazement (as will readers) when all the potential for pandemonium is breezily absorbed into Aunt Minnie’s system: “The oldest looked after the youngest. The ones in the middle looked after each other. And Aunt Minnie looked after them all.” Tweak this template a little, and it works for grocery shopping, housework, bathing, and going to the johnny house. There are episodes of stubbornness and fretting, dawdling, pouting, and crying; there is also noise, music, laughter, and hugging, all captured with elemental clarity and a visual caress in Lewin’s watercolors. This story is a sweet and simple song of grace, love, and responsibilities met; it will leave children aglow and adults in tears. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 22, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-82270-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
A paean to sisterhood captures the girls at, mostly, their sweetest in bright, crisp full-color photographs. A simple bit of verse accompanies the interactions of four pairs of siblings; the words, “Big Sister and I, racing hand in hand./Little Sister picks the biggest pumpkin in the land,” are complemented by scenes of the girls trooping through the woods and poking through the pumpkin patch. What is plain is the happiness coming off the pages as the twosomes share a book or a bite of food, an overcoat or some puddle-jumping, a book or a jump rope. Onlookers will identify with the infrequent episodes of conflict, in which tears run and hair is pulled, some of which appear a little staged; outweighing those are scenes that delight, moments of pure companionship to make other siblings smile. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8037-2482-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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