An odd little story, but a fresh example of Bruna’s work for a contemporary audience.
This reissue of a 1959 title misses an opportunity to improve upon the translated text’s lackluster story but will acquaint contemporary readers with the Dutch Bruna’s modernist style.
Although smiling broadly on the cover art, the eponymous apple is sad, as it cannot walk like the beetle that crawls on its leaf and cannot see the world around it from its low vantage point. A compassionate weather-vane rooster offers to help at night. The text says that “once the sky had turned quite black,” the rooster swoops down to carry the apple up to the sky, but the background remains blue at this point, and it’s rather odd that the apple can now see a butterfly, a house and then inside the house to a plate of grapes and a table setting if the night is indeed “quite black.” Of course, apples can’t cry or talk, and weather-vane roosters can’t fly about as tour guides, either, so maybe this is just a case for artistic license and the suspension of disbelief. The cheery palette and simple forms characteristic of Bruna’s work in his better-known titles about Miffy the bunny are inviting, and the circular structure of the tale, returning the apple to its place on the ground, is satisfying.
An odd little story, but a fresh example of Bruna’s work for a contemporary audience. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84976-214-4
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Tate/Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.
Hannah Hadley is a young special agent who must thwart a clear and present danger to the United States in Hoover’s “smart is cool” young adult novel.
Hannah Hadley might seem like most 13-year-old girls. She enjoys painting, playing with her MP3 player and spending time with friends. But that’s where the similarities end. Hadley doubles as Agent 10-1, among the youngest spies drafted into the CIA’s Div Y department. She’s joined in her missions by her 10-pound Shih Tzu, Kiwi (with whom she communicates telepathically), and her best friend Tommie Claire, a blind girl with heightened senses. When duty calls, the group sneaks to a hidden command center located under the floor of Hadley’s art studio. Her current mission, aptly named “Operation Farmer Jones,” takes her to a secluded farmhouse in Canada. There, al-Qaida terrorists have gathered the necessary ingredients for a particularly devastating nuclear warhead that they intend to fire into America. The villains are joined by the Mad Madam of Mayhem, a physicist for hire whom the terrorists force to complete the weapon of mass destruction. With Charlie Higson’s Young James Bond series and the ongoing 39 Clues novellas, covert missions and secret plans are the plots of choice in much of today’s fiction for young readers, and references to the famed 007 stories abound in Hoover’s tale. But while the plot feels familiar, Hoover’s use of modern slang—albeit strained at times—and gadgets such as the iTouch appeal to today’s youth. Placing girls in adult situations has been a mainstay since Mildred Wirt Benson first introduced readers to Nancy Drew in The Secret of the Old Clock, but Hannah Hadley is like Nancy Drew on steroids. Both are athletic, score well in their studies and have a measure of popularity. Hadley, however, displays a genius-level intellect and near superhuman abilities in her efforts to roust the terrorists—handy skills for a young teen spy who just so happens to get the best grades in school.
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0615419688
Page Count: 239
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Saunders makes her debut with a tender story about how Papa Badger helps Baby Badger get over his fear of the dark. As the sun goes down, the young one becomes afraid. Papa tells him, “The night is wonderful. Let me show you.” When Baby worries about getting lost in the dark, Papa points out that the bright North Star “will always guide you back home.” And so the conversation continues, with Papa pointing out the magical qualities of the night while Baby begins to feel more safe and full of wonder. Kolanovic’s palette of pastels in a soft spectrum of blues and greens, accented with luminous yellow for the moon and stars, has a soft, cozy feel that further creates a sense of calm security. When the palette gradually changes to pinks and yellows, the sun has come up, signaling bedtime for the nocturnal badgers. (Logically minded children will wonder how it is that an animal that typically stays up all night comes to be afraid of the dark.) This story, perhaps too quiet for some, succeeds in showcasing a charming father/child relationship and is a good choice for a cuddly storytime with a preschooler struggling with nighttime fears. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60684-172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Egmont USA
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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