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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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EVERYBODY SERVES SOUP

by Norah Dooley & illustrated by Peter j. Thornton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2000

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Dooley (Everybody Bakes Bread, 1996, etc.) dishes up another premise for Carrie to eat her way around her multicultural neighborhood. Thornton again offers framed, lifeless illustrations that stick to a predictable text. Today is a snow day at school and Christmas approaches. Carrie is tapped out after buying gifts for everybody except Mom, who always wants “anything that comes from your heart.” She hopes to earn money by shoveling snow. But when she helps Tito shovel his walk and steps, he tells her the landlord won’t pay, although they can warm up with a bowl of his sister Fendra’s Puerto Rican pea soup. Carrie gets the recipe. John has a cold and can’t shovel, but his mom offers a cup of Greek lemon-chicken soup and the recipe. And so it goes—recipes pour in along with Mark’s mom’s corn chowder, Darlene’s grandaunt’s oxtail soup, and Wendy’s mom’s miso soup. Recipes, however, don’t buy gifts, and at the end of the day Carrie has earned only ten dollars from Dad. That and Mrs. Max’s idea are enough to buy Mom’s gift—a blank book in which Carrie can write her newfound recipes. Preparing for Hanukkah, Mrs. Max reminds Carrie that “good soup with a friend warms more than the body.” The recipes included give readers an opportunity to test that notion in a book more cookery than fiction, more work-a-day than holiday. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2000

ISBN: 1-57505-422-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Carolrhoda

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
EVERYBODY BRINGS NOODLES
by Norah Dooley & illustrated by Peter j. Thornton

- BOOK REVIEW
EVERYBODY BAKES BREAD
by Norah Dooley & illustrated by Peter j. Thornton

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DOG HEAVEN

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Cynthia Rylant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995

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Rylant's debut as a picture book illustrator (not to be confused with her board book debut as a collagist in The Everyday Books, 1993) offers sweet comfort to all who have lost loved ones, pets or otherwise. ``When dogs go to Heaven, they don't need wings because God knows that dogs love running best. He gives them fields. Fields and fields and fields.'' There are geese to bark at, plenty of children, biscuits, and, for those that need them, homes. In page- filling acrylics, small, simply brushed figures float against huge areas of bright colors: pictures infused with simple, doggy joy. At the end, an old man leans on a cane as he walks up a slope toward a small white dog: ``Dogs in Dog Heaven may stay as long as they like. . . .They will be there when old friends show up. They will be there at the door.'' Pure, tender, lyrical without being overearnest, and deeply felt. (Picture book. 5-9)