``If you don't know the tundra you get lost hunting, if you don't know fairy-tales you get lost in life,'' say the Mansi, one of 17 Siberian ``folks''—from Russian to groups numbering only a thousand—represented in the 67 tales in this entrancing import. Published in 1992 in Siberia, where it has sold 60,000 copies, it's a fat, attractive volume with colorful illustrations, intriguing folkloric symbols and borders, and amply spaced parallel columns of its Russian and English texts. The latter can be naively literal (see title), but the stories have such elemental simplicity that it doesn't matter; by and large, the translation is pleasingly energetic and direct. Most of the tales are why stories or animal fables, sometimes recalling more familiar traditions—western European (``Puss in Boots''; ``The Ant and the Grasshopper'') or, interestingly, Native American; but the pervasive tone of these tales of hunters and herders of the tundra and forests of the far north is remarkably gentle. Morals, if any, are understated; trickster tales are rare; evildoers are more likely to reform than be punished (e.g., a sorceress who turns men into flowers loses her magic and goes home with the man who frees the others); quiet wisdom, closely linked to the earth, prevails. The art is beautifully composed and vibrant with life and humor; sharply observed, realistically portrayed animals slyly caricature their human counterparts, whose lovingly depicted traditional attire they wear. A rare and fascinating find. Glossary. (Folklore. 4+)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1993
ISBN: 5-88054-003-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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