Immersive art gives this canine odyssey a vivid setting.
A hunter’s dog undertakes a solitary journey through lavishly detailed Australian landscapes.
Like its four stand-alone predecessors in the wordless Love series, the art—gathered in neat arrays of midsized panels, often superimposed onto broader views of rocky vistas—teems with naturalistically painted wildlife. Here it’s all distinctively Australian and so often going about the business of living, dying, hunting, and raising young that the storyline plays out in the background. In that story a burly dog sees his master killed by a snake. After unsuccessfully trying to defend the corpse from a pack of wild dogs, he makes his way, exhausted and battered after further battles with, first, the alpha dog and then later with another venomous snake, overland to a farmhouse. There, in a poignant final sequence, the hunter’s family rushes out in the dark to welcome him back. “Love” doesn’t seem to be a major theme here, but while going light on gore (the hunter’s eaten body is never seen—just the slavering dogs around it) and scenes of explicit predation, Bertolucci gives animal lovers plenty to pore over on nearly every page. Comments about the dangers of climate change in Australia make a worthy if tacked-on close.
Immersive art gives this canine odyssey a vivid setting. (Graphic fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951719-17-3
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Magnetic Press
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders.
When a Bengali boy finds and saves a tiger cub from a man who wants to sell her on the black market, he realizes that the schoolwork he resents could lead to a career protecting his beloved Sunderbans island home.
When the not-yet-weaned cub escapes from a nearby reserve, Neel and many of his neighbors join the search. But some are in the pay of greedy Gupta, a shady entrepreneur who’s recently settled in their community. Even Neel’s father is tempted by Gupta’s money, although he knows that Gupta doesn’t plan to take the cub back to the refuge. Neel and his sister use the boy’s extensive knowledge of the island’s swampy interior to find the cub’s hiding place and lure it out so it can be returned to its mother. The Kolkota-born author visited the remote Sunderbans in the course of her research. She lovingly depicts this beautiful tropical forest in the context of Neel’s efforts to find the cub and his reluctance to leave his familiar world. While the conflicts resolve a bit too easily, the sense of place is strong and the tiger cub’s rescue very satisfying. Pastel illustrations will help readers envision the story.
A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders. (author's note, organizations, glossary) (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58089-660-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale.
After a tsunami devastates their habitat in the Salish Sea, a young orca and her brother embark on a remarkable adventure.
Vega’s matriarchal family expects her to become a hunter and wayfinder, with her younger brother, Deneb, protecting and supporting her. Invited to guide her family to their Gathering Place to hunt salmon, Vega’s underwater miscalculations endanger them all, and an embarrassed Vega questions whether she should be a wayfinder. When the baby sister she hoped would become her life companion is stillborn, a distraught Vega carries the baby away to a special resting place, shocking her grieving family. Dispatched to find his missing sister, Deneb locates Vega in the midst of a terrible tsunami. To escape the waters polluted by shattered boats, Vega leads Deneb into unfamiliar open sea. Alone and hungry, the young siblings encounter a spectacular giant whale and travel briefly with shark-hunting orcas. Trusting her instincts and gaining emotional strength from contemplating the vastness of the sky, Vega knows she must lead her brother home and help save her surviving family. In alternating first-person voices, Vega and Deneb tell their harrowing story, engaging young readers while educating them about the marine ecosystem. Realistic black-and-white illustrations enhance the maritime setting.
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale. (maps, wildlife facts, tribes of the Salish Sea watershed, environmental and geographical information, how to help orcas, author’s note, artist’s note, resources) (Animal fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-299592-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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