by David Bouchard & illustrated by David Jean & translated by Jason Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2012
This beautiful new edition of a familiar legend will be welcomed both for its pictures and its telling.
An acclaimed Métis storyteller recounts a Lenape pourquoi tale explaining the crow's shiny black color and croaking voice as the result of bringing the gift of fire.
Bouchard (Aboriginal Carol, 2008, etc.) begins by seating his audience in a circle on the earth, or at least the floor, and preparing them for quiet listening. In the leisurely style of his Lenape grandmother, the author describes how cold and uncomfortable the world was “[b]efore two-leggeds walked on Mother Earth.” Meeting in a Great Council, various animals offer to seek help from the Creator. Little Crow is chosen for her flying ability, her colorful plumage and her beautiful song. Returning from the Sky World with the gift of fire, she flies too close to the sun, charring her feathers and losing her voice. For her sacrifice, the Creator makes her now-black feathers shine with rainbow colors. The English text and Jones’ Ojibwe translation are set around lifelike animal portraits painted on traditional drums, echoing the circle theme established at the beginning. On the included CD, Bouchard and Jones read the text in English, Ojibwe and French. Their unhurried voices are accompanied by music by Manantial, a Native South American musical group.
This beautiful new edition of a familiar legend will be welcomed both for its pictures and its telling. (Folk tale. 7-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-88995-458-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Red Deer Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2012
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by Henry Winkler ; Lin Oliver ; illustrated by Scott Garrett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2014
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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by Nikki Grimes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2013
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)
In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child.
Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school. Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. / … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. / They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class. Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back.
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59078-985-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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