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FALLING ANGELS

Name: FALLING ANGELS
Author: Colin Thompson
ISBN: 0-09-176817-9

by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Colin Thompson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 2001

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A gentle fantasy about seeing with your heart as well as your eyes. Sally could always fly, and although her mother doesn’t believe it, her grandmother knows it to be true. As her grandmother is confined to bed, Sally brings her orchids from Africa, a shell from Patagonia, even snow from “where no one had ever walked.” Finally her grandmother flies with her, to her favorite place, where she takes her last breath. Sally never stops flying even when she grows up, and she flies with her children and grandchildren, too. The metaphor of imagination is tethered to Thompson’s (Future Eden, not reviewed, etc.) intricately detailed, dreamy illustrations: here’s a house with an airplane in the yard; there’s one sandwiched next to a clearly inhabited domicile-sized shoe. There’s a page of wondrous doors, and several of small boxes that might hold a gargoyle or a pair of red shoes. Beds sprout wings and roots and lakes lap gently at the edge of the bureau. The story works on several levels, but it is the fascinating pictures that will have young readers and listeners asking to see it again and again. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2001

ISBN: 0-09-176817-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Hutchinson/Trafalgar

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
WILD STORIES
by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Colin Thompson

- BOOK REVIEW
NORMAN AND BRENDA
by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Amy Lissiat

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BIG LITTLE BOOK OF HAPPY SADNESS
by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Colin Thompson

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TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

by Josh Schneider & illustrated by Josh Schneider ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2011

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Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
ULTRABOT'S FIRST PLAYDATE
by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

- BOOK REVIEW
KID AMAZING VS. THE BLOB
by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

- BOOK REVIEW
EVERYBODY SLEEPS (BUT NOT FRED)
by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

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ABIYOYO RETURNS

by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001

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The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)