A moving update of a powerful story.
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, a white Jewish boy receives the unusual responsibility of caring for an old, tarnished horn and wonders if his family’s subsequent good fortune could be the result of how he carries out his charge.
Hard times have hit Gabriel’s neighborhood. Many stores surrounding his family’s antiques shop have closed, though Gabriel hopes the new year will bring a turnaround. Then an African-American soldier knocks and hands Gabriel an old neglected horn that belonged to the enlisted man’s grandfather, requesting that the antiques-store owners keep it during his deployment. Kimmel has updated his story “The Samovar,” which appeared in the collection Days of Awe (1991), about the legendary character Elijah who can take on numerous disguises—like a soldier—to help and influence those less fortunate. The Czarist Russian setting is remade into a contemporary American integrated urban community of Muslims, Jews, African-Americans, Latinos, and Asian residents. Over the years Gabriel engages in tzedakah (acts of charity), and the horn magically brightens each time until its gleaming shine represents Gabriel’s family’s kindness and new prosperity. Kimmel’s shorter, more dialogue-driven narrative carries readers to an understanding of Gabriel’s revelation seven years later, when the soldier returns.
A moving update of a powerful story. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4677-8936-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Two rival Academies in the town of Beastieville counterintuitively offer either training in good manners for the already-virtuous or a bad-behavior curriculum tailored to students who “pester, pinch, and push, / who sniffle in their snot.” Unsurprisingly, it’s the University of Vile that takes center stage in this import, as variously hairy, blobby, garishly colored cartoon monsters crowd through the doors for encouragement in disruption (“It’s vital in the classroom to be messy, loud, and spiteful. / ‘More volume, class,’ the teacher calls. / ‘A racket is delightful’ ”). Then two Viles fall into a deep hole, and have to help each other to get out. They’re summarily expelled, of course, and a page turn later have been transformed into little angels (more or less) through instruction in making “right choices every day” at the other school. Though not really “cautionary” in the Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls sense, this does offer some memorable lines (“Even if I haven’t picked the right school, I’ll have picked the right nostril”) and acting out to counter the bland modeling more common in standard manner manuals. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7459-6254-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lion/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
Kingsbury, a prolific author of Christian novels for adults, offers a story for younger readers about a courageous knight who competes to become prince of his homeland and heir to the throne. The competition pits four knights from different villages against one another as they face three challenges to test their speed, strength and intelligence. The dark-haired knight from the west village is introduced as a kind, hard-working young man who practices all these skills prior to the competition. His father encourages him along the way with comforting messages about God’s support. During the challenges each of the other knights cheats in some way to gain an unfair advantage, so the king chooses the deserving knight from the west village as the winner of the contest. The story is wildly predictable and not particularly interesting, although the methods of cheating are inventive. The biggest drawback to the text is the lack of individual names for the knights, who are identified only by their village’s direction, which leads to many repetitions of “the knight from the west village.” Grimard’s pleasant illustrations show a medieval world of castles, ornate costumes and flying banners. She depicts the winning knight as a serious young man who smiles only twice in the story, when he is carrying a little disabled boy who can’t walk properly. Earnest, but that's probably not enough to captivate readers. (Picture book/religion. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-310-71645-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
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