A readable, pleasant story for patient listeners.
In this picture-book adaptation of an old Swedish story, Mary befriends the donkey that becomes her transportation from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
Mary first meets the little donkey at the town water well, and she is kind to the animal even though he is considered lazy and dirty. By coincidence, Mary’s husband, Joseph, buys that very donkey for Mary as it is the only one he can afford. Mary grooms the donkey and has Joseph make a new harness for him, and the donkey is transformed into a useful beast of burden. He carries Mary to Bethlehem on their difficult journey to be counted, and they are helped along the way by angels that appear at critical moments to guide them. When Mary’s child is born, the donkey is there to watch over the family when they sleep. This long-for-the-format story depicts Mary as a kind, cheerful woman who takes everything in stride, charming the donkey, a flock of birds, and even robbers encountered on the journey. Soft-focus illustrations in muted colors provide interesting details of the journey, with particularly appealing animal characters. Mary and Joseph and the shepherds all have olive skin and black hair. There is no author’s note to explain the origins of the story, only a back-cover note that the story is a classic chapter book for children in Sweden.
A readable, pleasant story for patient listeners. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-178250-294-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Though there’s not much of a storyline, the book is a good initial introduction to a lesser-known First Nations people.
A glimpse of life along British Columbia’s Harrison River, a millennium ago.
When P'ésk'a, a child of the Sta'ailes (also known as Chehalis) people, wakes to discover that a special tray needed for the First Salmon Ceremony has been left behind, he snatches it up and hurries riverward to deliver it to the Siyá:m (chief). Respectfully noting that this is an “interpretation of a time and place” 1,000 years ago, Ritchie threads his rudimentary plotline through village scenes of lightly clad people busily at work: fishing, building, hollowing out a cedar log for a canoe, making drums, weaving baskets, preparing the feast, and finally gathering on the bank to give thanks for the sth'óqwi (salmon) that is “the greatest gift.” The illustrations are created with abbreviated brush strokes and short, loosely drawn pen lines and have the warm, detailed look of Bob Graham’s work. First Salmon ceremonies are common throughout the Pacific Northwest, and aside from some distinctively patterned hats and a few other details, there is not much to distinguish the figures or their surroundings from any of the region’s small traditional settlements. Still, an afterword furnishes more about this ancient band’s way of life, and a short glossary provides an opportunity to sample its language.
Though there’s not much of a storyline, the book is a good initial introduction to a lesser-known First Nations people. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55498-718-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
The familiar rhyme gets a braw shoogle, skooshing along in tandem with scenes of bonnie revelry.
The holiday ditty gets a reworking in thick Scots dialect, from “a reid robin in a rowan tree” on.
The fun comes in reading (or, for the daring, singing) the lyrics aloud: “On the 12th day o Yuletide, / My true luve gied tae me / 12 drummers dirlin, / 11 pipes a-skirlin, / 10 lads a-lowpin, / 9 lassies birlin….” In cleanly drawn illustrations, the shaggy livestock (the “5 gowden rings” are in the noses of golden brown Highland cattle) are as frisky as the lads, clad in short pants, and the tartan-skirted pipers and lassies. Except for the rowan and a stray sheep or “collie dug” (dog) off in the distance, Land keeps his increasingly wintry country scenes from turning overcrowded by moving all the previous gifts offstage until the festive “lowpin birl” that fills the final spread. Rennie closes with a glossary and a pronunciation guide for Scots cardinal and ordinal numbers.
The familiar rhyme gets a braw shoogle, skooshing along in tandem with scenes of bonnie revelry. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-7825-0208-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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