The creators of Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs (2005) again chuck lots of promising elements together—evidently in hopes that they’ll assemble themselves into an exciting, or at least coherent, yarn. They don’t. Shortly after pausing in awe before the huge skeleton of a Giganotosaurus on a class trip to the museum, Flinn and friends fall through a wardrobe—er, closet and find themselves aboard a ship heading for Bag O’ Bones Island, where they fight scaly pirates to recover a treasure stolen from the aforementioned museum. Enter Giganotosaurus at the climax, as a towering pirate who hardly gets to roar before he’s reduced to jelly by the sight of a tiny spider. Ayto illustrates the sketchy plot with frenzied cartoon collages featuring lots of big teeth, jumbled action and a ship that looks like a fugitive from a Monty Python animation. Young readers will give this a perfunctory once-over at best; set them instead on a course for the more seaworthy likes of Deb Lund’s Dinosailors (2003), illustrated by Howard Fine. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6745-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
A man’s greed leads to his downfall in this adaptation of an 1886 short story. Pakhom is a peasant whose wife is happy with life but who himself has an insatiable desire for more and more land. He follows rumors and stories from place to place, enlarging his holdings each time, until he hears that the Bashkirs are practically giving away huge tracts of land. He investigates, to find that for 1,000 rubles, he can claim as much land as he can walk around in a day. Greed keeps him walking until sundown, when he finally reaches his starting point—and falls down dead. It is a sudden end to what has until that point been a fairly sprightly tale about greed and contentment along the lines of the many variants on “The Fisherman and His Wife.” The final illustration depicts Pakhom ascending with a host of angels, but it is doubtful that this will do much to soften the text: “Pakhom’s servant . . . dug his master a grave—just as long and as wide as Pakhom’s body where it lay upon the earth.” As an adaptation, the story cuts much from the original that lends it psychological and political depth, notably the involvement of the Devil in Pakhom’s lust for land and Pakhom’s relationships with various local Communes and landlords. Kiev-based Abesinova’s illustrations are humorous and highly detailed, cramming every possible element into richly colored, flat tableaux. Although they are entirely pleasing of themselves, they do little to extend the story of a man who is so driven to own land that he literally walks himself to death. For more psychologically satisfying treatments of the same theme, stick to the aforementioned folktales. There are no translation/abridgment/adaptation credits; however, a biographical note on Tolstoy follows the text. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56656-407-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
Ten-year-old Billy is disappointed that summer is about to end. School begins tomorrow and he would like a few more evenings like this. Each night Stuart, Juny Layne, and Mary Frances Bethel walk over from the nearby farm to play a game of catch-the-lightning-bug. Tonight is special, because the games are always the best when the moon is full. Once in for the evening, Billy wishes he could possess the bright moon, keeping it to have when he wants it. He stretches his arms out as far as he can and, indeed, gathers it into his room. But finding no place to hide it, he must return it to the sky. He lifts it to the window and it rolls across the lawn and out of sight. The next day, his father comments on the path that has appeared in their yard, but, before Billy can explain it, his mother chases him out to the school bus. Though he is sure no one will believe him, he is happy there is yet another night when he and his friends can play under the moon’s light. Blue watercolors capture some of the lyricism of the text, heightening the black of the trees in the evening landscape, and contrasting with the illumination of the moon. A quiet, nostalgic, and magical story told in the matter-of-fact way that children who like fantasy will enjoy. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8234-1624-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
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