If one wants to make Porridge and Cream like Shasta had or pack up some cold sliced chicken such as Prince Caspian carried,...
Bucholz, author of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook (2010), creates or re-creates Beautiful Breakfasts; Snacks, Teas, and Meals on the Run; Lunch and Dinner Menus; and Fabulous Feasts in four chapters.
Although she rates the recipes with stars by degree of difficulty, many of these are extremely complex. Each recipe is clearly tied to particular incidents and chapters in the books of Narnia. The font is rather small for a cookbook, and the instructions both exhaustive and full of warnings about alcohol and caffeine and techniques not for children. While she mostly uses real and fresh ingredients, periodically she recommends using premade cakes or instant puddings. There is also an amazing reliance on cooking spray. She very carefully defines and describes sauces and techniques but maintains an offhand, almost twee, tone in her introductions and commentary. While striving to stick to the actual meals in the stories (Eel Stew! Boar’s Head!), Bucholz periodically offer substitutions for hard-to-get ingredients; some of these may not be so hard-to-get, depending on location: goat meat, red currants and gooseberries, for example. Some of her culinary history is a little suspect, like a paragraph about medieval feasts that does not define “medieval” or specify country but merely states that rulers were indifferent toward the poor and ate magnificently while the poor starved.
If one wants to make Porridge and Cream like Shasta had or pack up some cold sliced chicken such as Prince Caspian carried, one can find that. Reading about it might be more fun. (sources, index [not seen]) (Cookbook. 10 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4022-6641-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
As one journalist's perspective, this stands as an excellent supplement to a more comprehensive overview.
Author/photographer Gerszak first went to Afghanistan to spend a year embedded with an American military unit documenting house searches, disputes with village elders and the aftermath of battles. He returned as an unaffiliated photographer without a military escort, determined to document civilian life.
This "photo journal" features images from both trips to Afghanistan, accompanied by diarylike accounts of his travels. Gerszak's frank and descriptive observations effectively convey the ugliness, monotony and tragedy of war. Most compelling are descriptions of civilians he meets, encounters that put a human face on the conflict Gerszak was unable to experience as an embedded journalist. His powerful images never romanticize or sensationalize the war. There are scenes of bloody battles, wounded people in hospitals and dazed refugees, but also remarkable images of busy marketplaces and vibrant street activity revealing that life goes on in the midst of death and destruction. The snippets of Gerszak's observations often lack cohesion and context. Though good background information is provided throughout in sidebars on such subjects as the Taliban, Muslim traditions and ethnic groups, this book alone will not give readers insight into the complexities of the Afghan conflict.
As one journalist's perspective, this stands as an excellent supplement to a more comprehensive overview. (maps, photographs) (Nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55451-293-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Homer himself would be agog.
A highlight-reel version of Odysseus’ journey home, framed as a graphic novel and plastered with fantastically dramatic pop-ups and other special effects.
Opening with Penelope working on a tapestry that transforms into an entirely different scene with the drop of a step-flap, the tale plunges on into the many escapes of Odysseus and his crew: from Polyphemus, from Circe, the Sirens and (after visiting the land of the dead) from Scylla and Charybdis. Then it’s on to Ithaca for a slaughter of suitors with a bow strung with real string, peace at last after Zeus rears up to get everyone’s attention with a foil thunderbolt and a final clinch between Odysseus and Penelope as their connubial bed levitates to reveal the deep tree roots beneath. Ita (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 2008) tells the tale in balloons of colloquial dialogue (“Where have you been for the last twenty years?” “Well, sweetheart, it’s an awfully long story”). Well-defined sequential panels give way to larger scenes of Polyphemus getting it in the eye with a sharpened log, of a ship with oars that row frantically with pulls of a tab, of Circe turning a man into a pig in a particularly masterful bit of paper engineering and other climactic moments. As transitions range from quick to nonexistent and the order in which gatefolds should be lifted isn’t always evident, some familiarity with the original is recommended—but even newbies will be riveted by this nonstop, high-energy retelling.
Homer himself would be agog. (Pop-up classic. 10-13)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4027-5867-6
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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