Bootman delivers a reimagined “Pied Piper of Hamelin,” set in 1940s Harlem. Rats run amok; the city’s powerless against them. When a mysterious man with an enchanted steel drum offers to eradicate the rats for $1,000,000, the desperate mayor agrees. The Pan Man lures the rats onto a barge. When, as in Browning’s poem (credited in an author’s note), the mayor reneges, the musician retaliates. Instead of leading children away, however, he enchants the whole populace—they dance unceasingly to his tunes. When the mayor pays up, the Pan Man releases all but him from the spell, exacting a personal revenge that will strike an odd chord for those unfamiliar with the poem. The best pictures are the jitterbugging dance scenes, invigorated by popular cultural imagery of the day. The teeming, almost anthropomorphized rats dominating the first two spreads create a disequilibrium never quite redeemed by the narrative and illustrations, which don’t achieve the symbiotic interplay that characterizes more successful work—including the illustrator’s own, in such books as Almost to Freedom, by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (2003). (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8225-9026-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2009
Granddad's yarns of bear chasing and rattlesnake wrassling come back to haunt him when Grandma shoos him and Jesse out of the house, archly suggesting that they hunt up a snake for dinner. Kastner bases her tale on memories of hiking the Tennessee mountains with her grandfather; her dappled, impressionistic watercolors capture the late summer woods perfectly. Tension mounts as a huge rattler, painted in dark, menacing colors, looms in Jesse's mind's eye—until a sudden breeze rattles leaves and sends her and Grandad leaping back. Sitting on a log to collect themselves, they don't notice the snake quietly coiled at its base, but agree that it's time to head home. A deftly comic tale, with the girl and her granddad sharing their apprehension and relief. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-02-749395-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Four Winds/MacMillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1993
Urgently, Scrimshaw telephones his mother for help: Wanda's left him with Sweeney, who's teething, and only some of his grandmother's cock-a-hoop honey cake will mollify him. Loading cake, meatballs, and some heavy, nutritious muffins into her backpack, Mrs. Oberon leaves her seven hungry cats and hops onto her trailbike. Her journey involves many kinds of transport- -rafting through rapids and alligators (diverted with meatballs); a plane menaced by "ice vultures" (the muffins weigh them down); etc. Meanwhile, Scrimshaw vainly tries to amuse Sweeney with his electic guitar, and is so exhausted by the time his mother quells the tyke that his next move is for the TV. No way. Pleasant but firm, Mrs. Oberon teaches her son to bake his own cake, then goes home to feed her cats. Lilting with wordplay, Mahy's tall tale is so good-humored that even a feckless father would be disarmed. Chamberlain's airy cartoons are equally cheery, with plenty of comic dividends—the alligators "trying to free their fangs" from the meatballs; huge, couch-potato Scrimshaw, beaming with pride over his first cake. A delight. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-689-50595-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1993
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