PLB 0-688-15299-6 The Searcys and the Longs (Mountain Wedding, 1996) return in this deep-South, mountain-valley duel of the sexes. Mandy Searcy tells about the arrival of a Model T on the farm. Mr. Long, Mandy’s stepfather, has just purchased the vehicle and is showing it off to the extended family. He calls the boys over for a closer inspection of the wondrous machine. “Cars are for boys,” chirps one boy, looking for trouble. “Girls just ride,” chides another. Mrs. Searcy thinks otherwise. She brushes past the protesting Mr. Long, commandeers the car, and races off with Mandy in the death seat. “We bobbed across a stump at the edge of the yard and ran over a crape of myrtle bush—Mama flattened a pine sapling before tearing through the pasture fence and shimmying over a hill.” It is one lovely rural landscape Mrs. Searcy explores at high speed, depicted in autumn splendor in Rand’s watercolors. This boisterous tip of the hat toward equality of the sexes is as fit and funny as a family story ought to be. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-15298-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
A tender and inspirational retelling of a magical Korean tale of goodness and sacrifice. When a young woodcutter saves a deer from a hunter, the deer offers to grant him a wish. The woodcutter wants a loving wife and family more than anything, but believes he is too poor to marry. The enchanted deer grants him a heavenly maiden of a wife and before long the happy couple is blessed with a child. But soon, homesick and seduced by the heavens, the wife and child return to life among the stars, leaving the poor woodcutter earthbound and alone. The deer takes sympathy on the woodcutter and offers him a passage to the heavens, which he gives instead to his ailing, elderly mother. The gods finally step in, reuniting the selfless man with his entire family in paradise. San Souci’s retelling is captivating, but Neilan’s vibrant use of line and emotional expressions furnish the enchantment. (Picture book/folklore. 5-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-56397-754-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
A riveting adventure about an encounter with one of nature’s most formidable manifestations. Beard (The Flimflam Man, 1998, etc.) presents a suspenseful account of Lucille and her brother Natt’s experience during an afternoon tornado; readers will keep turning the pages until the climactic conclusion. Natt and Lucille are left alone in shelter of the cellar during the storm as their mother goes to assist an elderly neighbor. With quiet courage the two face the storm, relying upon each other for moral and physical support. Beard’s lyrical descriptions of Natt and Lucille’s experiences lend a you-are-there immediacy to the tale, while Carpenter’s generously colored artwork vibrates with the intensity of nature unleashed. Turquoise skies quickly turn to dark indigo as the storm approaches. Deep, foreboding grays predominate as Natt and Lucille wait out the storm; with the return of lighter skies and colors, the children emerge from their shelter. A rousing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 10, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-37977-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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