Ed Emberley's smart and simple Animal Drawing Book (1970) was a disarmingly contemporary example of the popular if not quite respectable add-a-line drawing lesson. There are not only more animals here but all sorts of cars, trucks, planes, boats, wagons, furniture, buildings, people, and "this and that." The crowding of each page with ten to 30 items and up to nine steps in the construction of each item makes the book less attractive than its predecessor, but the great variety of objects may be just what devotees of the animal book have been waiting for. Emberley invites junior cartoonists to take off on their own from the basics he supplies, and he makes it seem so easy and enjoyable that they're bound to go on to more creative doodling.
Pub Date: March 16, 1972
ISBN: 0316789720
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1972
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There once was a children’s-book author named Ifeoma who lived in London with her two sons. While pondering her latest project, the writer recalled the folklore she was regaled with as a youth in her eastern Nigerian village.... Putting pen to paper, Onyefulu resurrects the characters that populated those stories, like sage King Lion and gullible Lizard, for a new generation of readers. She recounts the tale of a greedy, crafty Tortoise, who hides food from all his jungle friends during a famine only to learn the importance of sharing after he is caught out. In the titular tale, the author introduces readers to Ogilisa, a spoiled child who learns the importance of humility and acceptance when she finds her appetite cannot be satisfied in reality. Playful idioms, such as “they were like two seeds in an udala fruit,” and basic introductions to Nigerian culture (mentions of food, clothing and customs) illuminate the basic precepts introduced in this vigorous collection of fables, each of which closes with a moral. The moral of this review? Aesop doesn't have all the answers. (Folklore. 8-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84780-176-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
In a large, handsome format, Tarnowska offers six tales plus an abbreviated version of the frame story, retold in formal but contemporary language and sandwiched between a note on the Nights’ place in her childhood in Lebanon and a page of glossary and source notes. Rather than preserve the traditional embedded structure and cliffhanger cutoffs, she keeps each story discrete and tones down the sex and violence. This structure begs the question of why Shahriyar lets Shahrazade [sic] live if she tells each evening’s tale complete, but it serves to simplify the reading for those who want just one tale at a time. Only the opener, “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,” is likely to be familiar to young readers; in others a prince learns to control a flying “Ebony Horse” by “twiddling” its ears, contending djinn argue whether “Prince Kamar el Zaman [or] Princess Boudour” is the more beautiful (the prince wins) and in a Cinderella tale a “Diamond Anklet” subs for the glass slipper. Hénaff’s stylized scenes of domed cityscapes and turbaned figures add properly whimsical visual notes to this short but animated gathering. (Folktales. 10-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84686-122-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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