Unfortunately, the worthy message is overshadowed by its single-minded, intense delivery, which feels more like propaganda...
A heavy-handed allegorical tale about consumerism, fair trade and social conscience.
Gluttonous and hedonistic Princess Occidiane is fat, selfish, demanding and completely unaware of what her piggishness costs others. Eventually, her appetite devours most of the planet’s resources, which wreaks serious economic and environmental havoc. What to do? A page appears with three “buttons,” which each leads to a different solution—and thus there’s a trio of different endings to the story. All three outcomes offer some scathing social commentary. It appears that Occidiane represents the ugly face of Western consumerism, things like entitlement, greed, oppression and ecological irresponsibility. Fair enough. But the story fails to offer anything but binary characters—perpetrator/victim, entitled/disadvantaged, consumers/laborers—and as such, it comes across as didactic and reductionist, even disparaging. Interactive features are plentiful but simple. Certain words or phrases function as “hyperlinks” that animate and/or advance the story, and some of the lovely illustrations also produce additional images when tapped. The magical background music—Saint Saëns’ “The Aquarium”—can be switched on or off, but narration (in French or English) is a page-by-page decision. This storybook app is technologically solid, and it brings up some important issues that kids would do well to contemplate and discuss as they develop social consciences.
Unfortunately, the worthy message is overshadowed by its single-minded, intense delivery, which feels more like propaganda than storytelling. (iPad storybook app. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: La Souris Qui Raconte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering.
An honestly told biography of an important politician whose name every American should know.
Published while the United States has its first African-American president, this story of John Roy Lynch, the first African-American speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, lays bare the long and arduous path black Americans have walked to obtain equality. The title’s first three words—“The Amazing Age”—emphasize how many more freedoms African-Americans had during Reconstruction than for decades afterward. Barton and Tate do not shy away from honest depictions of slavery, floggings, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, or the various means of intimidation that whites employed to prevent blacks from voting and living lives equal to those of whites. Like President Barack Obama, Lynch was of biracial descent; born to an enslaved mother and an Irish father, he did not know hard labor until his slave mistress asked him a question that he answered honestly. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, Lynch had a long and varied career that points to his resilience and perseverance. Tate’s bright watercolor illustrations often belie the harshness of what takes place within them; though this sometimes creates a visual conflict, it may also make the book more palatable for young readers unaware of the violence African-Americans have suffered than fully graphic images would. A historical note, timeline, author’s and illustrator’s notes, bibliography and map are appended.
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering. (Picture book biography. 7-10)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5379-0
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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