As a handmade wooden bird is passed down through several generations, each female relative endows it with a memory that adds to the family history. The bird was carved by a great-great-great-great-great-grandmother while waiting for her baby to be born. Her daughter hid the bird in her butter churn during a robbery. Her deaf granddaughter hid the bird in her skirt hem when she went away to school to learn sign language. As each generation's tale is added, Shannon (Tomorrow's Alphabet, 1996, etc.) achieves a cumulative effect—``The bird her mother sewed in her hem. The bird her mother hid from the thieves''— that gives the story the rhythm of oral tradition. The person narrating is a young girl who is girding herself to once again attempt a high dive, after falling. In the end, she concludes, ``This is the bird I'll always keep till the right time comes to pass it along. The bird I got to celebrate my high dive,'' adding her tale to the legend. Soman's sensitive illustrations reflect the intimacy created by the memory of ancestral struggles and accomplishments; this is a moving tribute to familial bonds. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-395-72037-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1997
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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