Child-friendliness substitutes for awe in this cozy rendition.
The Creation story, interpreted with minimalist art.
Rylant’s text, looking as if hand-lettered and adapted from Chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Genesis from the King James Bible, emphasizes for the youngest readers and listeners how very basic yet how extraordinary this story simultaneously is. Her naïve acrylic paintings are charmingly innocent and appealing, readily capturing the salient points of each day’s work, each rendered in a separate double-page spread. (Creationists should be pleased at the painting of a dinosaur to depict the creation of “the beasts.”) Children who already know this story may enjoy seeing and hearing this latest version. Youngsters who are unfamiliar with the opening chapters of the book of Genesis may well wonder, after the final lines, just what happens next? Such queries should stimulate lively conversations. Brushstrokes are readily visible, often dominating compositions, as in the creation of Day and Night, in which darkness looks like a gray, feathered wing laid over the light. Depicted figures—the aforementioned dinosaur, birds, tortoises—have a pleasingly blobby look. This adaptation’s low-key illustrations bring the story to a child’s level; they will not satisfy those seeking to revel in its majesty.
Child-friendliness substitutes for awe in this cozy rendition. (Picture book/religion. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7039-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Leave this one behind when packing kids for their summer-camp experience.
An irksome version of the traditional cumulative tale adds little to the collection of Jewish literature.
At Camp Knish, a ball of clay escapes the arts-and-crafts cabin, vowing never to be cut. It rolls through the camp as a growing group of look-a-like campers with names like Mira Farfelbottom and Mose Plotznik, along with Rabbi Shmaltzbaum give chase. Not wanting to be formed into a menorah, dreidel, kiddush cup or even a yad (pointer for reading Torah), the bedeviled ball of clay manages to get to the bank of Camp Knish Lake. Once there, he is “more like a pancake of clay…dented, dinged, and dirtied; stained, pebbled, and pounded” but still able to brag about his escape. One last roll has him sinking to the bottom, never to be seen again by the likes of Tali Nudgeblatt and her fellow campers. Colored-pencil drawings of typical camp scenarios with wooden cabins, soccer games, Israeli circle dancing and vegetable gardening along a green-hued meadow landscape provide a stereotypical background for the tale. The ball of clay itself is a tumbling, gray, lumpy mass with a snarky expression. The vexing choice to use faux-Yiddish names exacerbates its tiresome effect. This poorly executed adaptation is utterly lacking in ingenuity.
Leave this one behind when packing kids for their summer-camp experience. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7614-6142-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
A humorous if silly way to introduce the concept of removing any leavened foods from the home as part of pre-holiday...
Eager to help his overworked, stressed mother during the pre-Passover spring cleaning, a little boy invents a super vacuum-type machine that does more than a clean sweep.
Wearing a baseball cap and circle-shaped glasses, the round-faced, google-eyed Izzy is a whiz at creating all things science in his room, which is filled with cookie crumbs and other leftover foods. While Mom takes a nap, Izzy promises to have everything neat, clean and free of hametz (foods unacceptable during Passover) by using his “Super-McDuper Passover McClean” machine. It works like a charm in his bedroom, where everything is eaten by McClean, whirled and swirled, washed and dried and then spit out and put back in place. But cleaning the living room becomes more complicated with a McClean malfunction that first swallows everything in sight and then, with Izzy’s tinkering, spits everything out upside down. “Izzy jammed on REVERSE. / And reverse did the trick! That McClean was so slick, / Turned the whole room right over and did it real quick.” Subdued watercolors create nevertheless zany illustrations to accompany the Prelutsky-style rhymes, presenting a confident and seriously earnest youngster working out his experimental mishaps to achieve a sparkling success.
A humorous if silly way to introduce the concept of removing any leavened foods from the home as part of pre-holiday preparation. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7613-5654-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
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