adapted by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge & illustrated by Will Hillenbrand ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1995
Wooldridge's first book is stunning. Wicked Jack loves being mean, luring people into his clutches with phony kindness. One day he is accidently nice to St. Peter and is given three of the ``sorriest'' wishes St. Peter has ever granted: that the first person to sit in his rocking chair sticks to it, that the first person to grab his sledgehammer sticks to it, and that the first one to pass a firebush gets drawn into the prickles. When the Devil's sons come calling, Jack does such a job on them and their father that when he dies, the Devil turns him away: ``You go start yourself a hell of your own!'' Wooldridge narrates this story in the voice of a toothless storyteller, cramming it with unrefined but sculpted expressions, and colloquialisms that border on wisecracks. She supplements the harmonious architecture of the plot with an equally exciting rhythm. Snap, crackle, popit's just about flawless, with a careful source note in the back. Hillenbrand's hilarious illustrations are graphite caricatureswhose dry sarcasm is comparable, say, to Georg Grosz'sentertainingly colored and softened with oils and oil pastels. His style is ideal for depicting tiny, expressive actionsJack flicking a match or picking dirt from under his fingernails. Everything in these pictures belongs to the sphere of high comedy, and readers will hoot. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-8234-1101-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995
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by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001
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)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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adapted by Pete Seeger & illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal ; illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2015
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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