A well-forged adaptation.
A day in the life of a modern-day blacksmith.
The poem begins: “Under a spreading chestnut tree / The village smithy stands.” The illustrations show that a neighbor’s wrought-iron gate is broken, but the “mighty” blacksmith, with arms “strong as iron bands,” is up to the task of fixing it. After he collects scrap metal and drives it back to the smithy, he begins his work. The “bellows blow.” He swings his heavy sledge “with measured beat and slow.” When his three children come home from school, they visit their dad in his smithy. They try to “catch the burning sparks that fly”—from a safe distance, of course. As they attend church on Sunday, where his daughter sings in the choir, the blacksmith is reminded of his late partner. The cycle goes on: “toiling—rejoicing—sorrowing— / onward through life he goes.” With contemporary illustrations that enhance the original source material, Karas forges new life from Longfellow’s 19th-century poem. The textured illustrations deftly utilize cool, desaturated colors, making the reds, oranges, and yellows of the smithy pop. Backmatter explains the tools of the trade and offers a short history of blacksmiths. Dedicated to Karas’ blacksmith son, the book beautifully parallels Longfellow’s own familial inspiration for the original poem. The blacksmith and his family present white; their neighbor has brown skin.
A well-forged adaptation. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0443-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Irresistible.
Winter on a Maine farm offers the joys of ice in all its forms.
Icy childhood memories glisten in this magical series of nostalgic vignettes. From the first skim on a pail to the soft, splotchy rink surface at the end of the season, Obed recalls the delights of what others might have found a dreary season. The best thing about ice is skating: in fields, on a creek or frozen lake and, especially, on the garden rink. In a series of short scenes presented chronologically, the author describes each ice stage in vivid detail, adding suspense with a surprising midwinter thaw and peaking with an ice show. Her language shimmers and sparkles; it reads like poetry. Readers will have no trouble visualizing the mirror of black ice on a lake where their “blades spit out silver,” or the “long black snake” of a garden hose used to spray the water for their homemade rink. McClintock’s numerous line drawings add to the delight. They show children testing the ice in a pail, a father waltzing with a broom, joyous children gliding down a hill in a neighbor’s frozen field. One double-page spread shows the narrator and her sister figure skating at night, imagining an admiring crowd. The perfect ice—and skating—of dreams concludes her catalog.
Irresistible. (Memoir. 6-9)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-618-89129-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Well meant but unsuccessful.
The sincerity in these versified valentines to 13 often-reviled animals may ring true, but the natural history doesn’t always pass muster.
Following a strong opener—“Turkey vulture, please be mine, / Not because you soar so fine, / But ’cause you rock on clean-up crew; / No rot is left when you are through”—the quality of the informational content takes a sharp nose dive. There are arguable claims that moles and opossums do no damage to gardens and that flies and cockroaches should be considered helpful recyclers of dead matter, as well as the befuddling, apparently rhyme-driven assertion that moths (not as caterpillars but in their flying, adult stage) are pests that “dine on fields of grain.” Dubbing these and other subjects from skunks and vampire bats to mosquitoes and snakes “secret friends,” Lang closes with an invitation to readers to compose similar love notes to “someone who is misunderstood.” In oval or unbordered natural settings, Gallegos renders each creature with reasonable accuracy, though sometimes with a smile or oversized eyes for extra visual appeal.
Well meant but unsuccessful. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9834594-5-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Prospect Park Media
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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