The author/illustrator of City Green (1994) and Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen (1991) again celebrates community spirit, this time with a tale of a takecharge child who refuses to let her grandpa's corner grocery quietly disappear when a big supermarket opens down the street. Having already seen the neighborhood hardware store closed by competition, Lucy indignantly rejects the idea that her grandpa would likewise knuckle under; so she is understandably dismayed when a “For Sale” sign goes up. “ ‘The new supermarket will have everything from soup to nuts,’ ” Grandpa explains sadly. “ ‘But it won't have you,’ ” she rejoins—then marches off to organize the willing regulars, from her own classmates to the firefighters across the street, into a fix-it brigade. From plump resident tabby cat to worn checkerboard floor tiles, Grandpa's store positively exudes coziness, and in the final scenes DiSalvo-Ryan's industrious, multigenerational crowd is lit up as much by Grandpa's loving smile as by his bright red smock. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 30, 2000
ISBN: 0-688-16716-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Monk takes a didactic tack in presenting one girl’s ancestry, weaving into a story of several generations the scene of her African-American mother and Caucasian father’s wedding. The stumbling narration establishes that the protagonist is in sixth grade, looking back on a summer weekend before she entered second grade. Her loving Aunt Prudence, known as Aunt Poogee, takes the narrator to an open-air market, where they encounter another relative, Miss Violet. Miss Violet asks outright, “My goodness, Prudence, is the child mixed?” The question haunts the girl, whose name is revealed as Hope, until Aunt Poogee steps in with a bedtime story that is overblown, invoking the faith of immigrants and slaves across generations who “look forward to a future where you will be proud to be part of a race that is simply ‘human.’ “ The sentiments are strong, but the delivery borders on mawkish. Sturdy faces, tender postures, and vibrant backgrounds considerably enliven the bibliotherapeutic proceedings. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 9, 1999
ISBN: 1-57505-230-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
From Belgium, a kooky take on parenthood. As was the case with the old woman who lived in a shoe, a father has ten children and hardly knows what to do. Ten children mean ten of everything: ten breakfasts, ten pairs of underpants, ten t-shirts, ten jeans, not to mention twenty little socks and shoes. Every night he stays up late building a secret boat to sail around the world “all by himself . . . for ten days, or maybe even ten months.” After one day and night alone, he prepares his first solitary breakfast, automatically setting out ten cups, which makes him miss his children terribly. Soon after, father and his ten little mateys merrily set sail around the world. Large white backgrounds transform into a pleasingly turquoise sea as father sets sail; fat black outlines circumnavigate simple, round cheery shapes of the ten, wide-eyed, pink-faced cherubs, in a bright, refreshing style that shares a sensibility with Lucy Cousins’s art. The lone sailboat afloat in the ocean is a deliberate contrast to the clutter and confusion of life with ten children.(Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8037-2446-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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