Stanley (Petrosinella, p. 716, etc.) retells the wild adventures of Daniel Hall, seaman from New Bedford, Mass. The year is 1856 and Daniel, at the ripe old age of 14, ships out aboard the whaler Condor. The voyage is scheduled to last three years, but Daniel cuts his journey short when he flees the ship (and the brutal ministrations of the sadistic captain) while on the chilly eastern coast of Siberia. With a little help from the Yakut people, Daniel survives eight months of mean winter, and is ultimately returned to New Bedford on another whaler. In less adept hands, this would have been but another cruel tale, but Stanley's nimble touch keeps melodrama at bay, provides intriguing glimpses into whaling life, and renders lovely, age-worn pastel illustrations that look as though they were lifted from 19th-century cameos. An example of her care is the inset maps that appear on a number of the pages to show Daniel's location at a given time. A book as quick on its feet and as engaging, as real, as its young hero. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8037-1468-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1995
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Keena Ford’s second-grade class is taking a field trip to the United States Capitol. This good-hearted girl works hard to behave, but her impulsive decisions have a way of backfiring, no matter how hard she tries to do the right thing. In this second book in a series, Keena cuts off one of her braids and later causes a congressman to fall down the stairs. The first-person journal format is a stretch—most second graders can barely write, let alone tell every detail of three days of her life. Children will wonder how Keena can cut one of her “two thick braids” all the way off by pretend-snipping in the air. They will be further confused because the cover art clearly shows Keena with a completely different hairdo on the field trip than the one described. Though a strong African-American heroine is most welcome in chapter books and Keena and her family are likable and realistic, this series needs more polish before Keena writes about her next month in school. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3264-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
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