Adds little to the original while propagating Asian and martial arts stereotypes.
A ninja-themed retelling of “The Gingerbread Man.”
“Once upon a time, there was a little old sensei who taught ninjas in a hidden dojo.” Said sensei is a small fuchsia-and-white panda with trailing mustache and beard and a stereotypical conical hat, and his ninjas include Bear, Fox, Mouse, and Snake, all in black outfits tied with a colored belt. To reward their hard work, the sensei, working from an ancient recipe, crafts a Ninjabread treat: a tiny ninja complete with his own miniscule sword and throwing stars. When the cookie escapes the oven, the teacher warns his students with a gong. Bear, Snake, and Mouse hear it and confront the little cookie, but they fail to capture or eat him. Fox’s difficulty hearing anything over the sound of the waterfall gives him the perfect way to lure the Ninjabread Man closer, to the cookie’s demise. Leigh’s retelling may enthrall kids practicing martial arts, but the tale is rather weak: the rhymes the cookie spouts are loose and sporadic; the fights with the other ninjas are over too quickly; and it’s never clear just how the cookie succeeds against his much larger opponents. Spare, Asian-inspired scenes background the action of the ninjas, who all sport extremely mean faces when confronting their small nemesis.
Adds little to the original while propagating Asian and martial arts stereotypes. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-81430-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Lendroth brings the right ingredients, offering a tale that challenges gender stereotypes and showcases an intergenerational...
An exuberant young girl finds her match in taiko drumming.
A whirlwind of energy, Natsumi often hears the words, “Not so fast” or “hard” or “loud” from her family. When she worries her boisterous actions always lead to mistakes, her grandfather finds the perfect outlet: taiko. On stage, Natsumi pounds the large, barrel-shaped drums—their thundering boom an extension of her enthusiastic spirit. Like Kevin Henkes with his water pistol–toting Lilly, Lendroth offers a charming character who defies traditional gender associations. However, her choice to place this modern story in a “village” is interesting. Cultural festivals such as the one she describes are experienced by Japanese-Americans today, and the United States has a thriving taiko or kumidaiko scene, yet Americans do not typically refer to their small towns or rural locations as villages. Acknowledgement that the setting is in Japan in the tale’s initial setup would have been helpful, as it establishes an entirely different lens for readers. Digital art, made to look like marker drawings, are colored in a mostly pastel palette. Unfortunately, while the artist is capable of including more interest and detail in her illustrations, as in her Five Green and Speckled Frogs (2003), she fails to give these characters and setting the specificity she gave generic animals.
Lendroth brings the right ingredients, offering a tale that challenges gender stereotypes and showcases an intergenerational bond, but overall, it’s a disappointing execution to a promising start. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-17090-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance.
The beat is all around her when a girl takes a walk in the park with her mother.
On a lovely summer day, a young African-American girl in a bright pink sundress and matching sneakers sees, smells, sings, claps and snaps her fingers to an internal rhythm. As a boom box plays its song and a drummer taps his beat, neighborhood children join her in an energetic, pulsating dance culminating in a rousing musical parade. Schofield-Morrison’s brief text has a shout-it-out element as each spread resounds with a two-word phrase: “I shook a rhythm with my hips. /SHAKE SHAKE”; “I tapped the rhythm with my toes. / TIP TAP.” Morrison’s full-bleed, textured oil paintings capture the joy of a mother and daughter in an urban park surrounded by musicians, food vendors and many exuberant children. Read this aloud with music playing loudly—not in the background. Morrison is a Coretta Scott King/New Talent Award winner, and this is a fine debut for his wife in their first collaboration.
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-178-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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