A blooper.
It’s down to the final three. Can “The Slugger” win the big spelling bee?
The championship round starts with easy words, like “cupcake” and “brain.” Then there are harder words, like “reindeer,” “rumpus” “llama” and ”“giraffe,” images of which go right from The Slugger’s mind onto the page. Cornelius is eliminated on the word “mysterious,” so only Ruby stands between him and victory. After nine rounds, the bee is deadlocked, and the principal makes a dramatic decision: The two contestants will give the definitions of words as well as spell them. The next word up is “sesquipedalian.” The Slugger makes his best guess, but...”I was out! I’d been benched! / I was out like a jerk. / Ruby rose from her chair / and went straight to her work.” The next day, it takes his teacher to gently set him straight. Ruby won since she knows what matters is to use words well; reading is better than just memorizing words. “And there’s always next year.” Armstrong-Ellis’ illustrations—a complex product of gouache, ink and colored pencil—have sharp resolution and humorous touches, though they seem aimed at a younger audience than the text. Rose’s “Casey at the Bat”–inflected verse is above average, but her baseball analogy is inconsistent, and worthy though it is, her message comes out of left field.
A blooper. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0847-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Bruchac and Farnsworth honor the Indians of the Northeast, the written versions of the tale, and the elders and Wabanaki...
An Abenaki retelling of a traditional story of various indigenous nations of the Northeast that centers on loyalty and humans’ relation to nature.
Long ago, a young man travels north to hunt throughout the winter. One day, as he is following the tracks of a moose, he realizes he is lonely and wishes out loud for a partner. Returning to his lodge, he finds a fire burning and food waiting, but there is no one there. This goes on for days; on the seventh night he finds a woman waiting inside. The young man and woman develop a relationship based on respect and loyalty, and the hunter promises to always remember her. When he returns to his village in the spring, he finds himself pressured to take a wife. This tension eventually leads the hunter to live a double life, testing his devotion to and respect for the “great family of life.” Through his scenic paintings, Farnsworth evokes the light, seasons, and life in the forested mountains of the Northeast, supporting Bruchac’s words and achieving a striking visual depiction of the environment of Abenaki peoples. The narrative itself is elliptical, offering literal readers a story of loyalty but founding it on a subtle exploration of the spirit world and its relation to ours.
Bruchac and Farnsworth honor the Indians of the Northeast, the written versions of the tale, and the elders and Wabanaki tellers who keep this story alive. (author’s note) (Picture book/folk tale. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-937786-43-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Wisdom Tales
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Kids will readily warm to this gentle giant from the frozen North.
“Inukpak was huge, even for a giant.”
He can cover the breadth of the Arctic in just a few days and wades into the ocean to fish for whales. One day Inukpak happens upon a lone hunter on the tundra, and mistaking the man for a lost child, he scoops the tiny human up and continues on his walk. Christopher effectively plays the extreme size differential for laughs, as when Inukpak catches a bowhead whale but calls it a small fish. Exhibiting a great deal of equanimity, the hunter decides he might as well just accept his genial new “father,” and the two live happily ever after. Nelson’s paintings also milk the size disparity for humor; Inukpak is usually painted as if from a low vantage, foreshortening emphasizing the giant’s humongous feet. The enormous bone necklace he wears bears silent witness to the “very large” polar bears he’s accustomed to, explaining how he mistakes a regular-sized one for a lemming. A foreword introduces Christopher’s interest in the tales of the Inuit in general and this oft-repeated one in particular; an afterword provides further information about Inukpak’s kin, the great giants, as well as the lesser giants and the colossal polar bears they have hunted almost to extinction.
Kids will readily warm to this gentle giant from the frozen North. (Picture book/folk tale. 5-8)Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-7722-7002-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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