A rare and distinctive perspective on the relationship between people and tigers, though with specialized appeal.
Tiger stories from the Gond people, one of the largest Indigenous groups in South Asia.
In this wordy Indian import, author/illustrator Uikey laments the loss of the interdependent relationship that tigers once enjoyed with the Gond tribe. They shared their forest home, he recounts, “and the tiger was like an elder, a worthy ancestor.” Along with his own childhood memories of tigers, he also shares six short stories about the tiger. These tales are set in rural India and are part of the folklore of the Gond. In a preface, Uikey mentions that he has penned these stories in the hope that they will be remembered by future generations. At the end, he brings the book back full circle by sharing how his small son, Chalit, experiences the tiger now and how city-dweller Chalit’s experiences are so different from Uikey’s as a child. It’s a heartfelt effort, but the writing style doesn’t seem geared toward children. Young readers will need a significant amount of explanation and context to completely understand Uikey’s perspective. The book also has much more text than is common in the United States for a picture book, gearing it toward older readers. Compensating for this, the book has strong visual appeal, with intricate die cuts on the front and back covers. The earthy-hued, ink-on-paper illustrations in Gond art are absolutely striking in their depictions of the tiger and Indian rural life.
A rare and distinctive perspective on the relationship between people and tigers, though with specialized appeal. (Picture book. 10-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-93-83145-99-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tara Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
Timely subject matter and an adequate romance, but nothing super.
Geeky girl with absent father and quirky hobby meets unsuitable boy, then realizes Mr. Right has been under her nose all along.
Blaze's self-centered father, a caricature, left the family to become an actor, leaving her with only her name (from Ghost Rider's Johnny Blaze) and a love for classic Marvel Comics. Now, Blaze spends her time ferrying her 13-year-old brother Josh and his farting, breast-ogling, gay-joke–making friends to and from soccer practice. She has a crush on Mark, Josh's soccer coach, but their relationship fails to progress until Blaze's friend snaps a picture of Blaze trying on lingerie and sends it to Mark's phone. After a confusing and pressure-filled sexual encounter and Mark's subsequent brushoff, Mark posts the half-naked photo on clunkily named Facebook stand-in FriendsPlace, and it goes viral. The resultant bullying is harsh but believable, and it's satisfying to see Blaze channeling her hurt and anger into making comics and redecorating her Superturd of a minivan. Less impressive, however, are some of Blaze's asides to the reader (“Stuart is one of only three black students in our school....I feel somewhat hip and urban having him here at my house”) and the frequent subtle digs at girls being high-maintenance, stalkers, actual sluts and brainwashing feminists.
Timely subject matter and an adequate romance, but nothing super. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7348-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
A change of pace from the teeming swarms of fantasy and paranormal romance but too underpowered to achieve escape velocity.
A low-wattage collection of original stories and poems, as unmemorable as it is unappealingly titled.
The collection was inspired by a perceived paucity of short science fiction for teen readers, and its production costs were covered by a Kickstarter campaign. The editors gather a dozen poems and 21 stories from a stable of contributors who, after headliners Jack McDevitt and Nancy Holder, will be largely unknown even to widely read fans of the genre. The tales place their characters aboard spacecraft or space stations, on other worlds or in future dystopias, but only rarely do the writers capture a credibly adolescent voice or sensibility. Standouts in this department are the Heinlein-esque “The Stars Beneath Our Feet,” by Stephen D. Covey & Sandra McDonald, about a first date/joyride in space gone wrong, and Camille Alexa’s portrait of a teen traumatized by a cyberspace assault (“Over It”). Along with a few attempts to craft futuristic slang, only Lavie Tidhar’s fragmentary tale of Tel Aviv invaded by successive waves of aliens, doppelgangers, zombies and carnivorous plants (“The Myriad Dangers”) effectively lightens the overall earnest tone. Aside from fictional aliens and modified humans, occasional references to dark skin (“Out of the Silent Sea,” Dale Lucas) are the only signs of ethnic diversity. Most of the free-verse poetry makes only oblique, at best, references to science-fictional themes.
A change of pace from the teeming swarms of fantasy and paranormal romance but too underpowered to achieve escape velocity. (author bios) (Science fiction/short stories. 12-14)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-9847824-0-8
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Underwords
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
