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THE GENTLE FALCON

Name: THE GENTLE FALCON
Author: Hilda Lewis

by Hilda Lewis & developed by Crushed Lime Media ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2013

Uneven in value the new tweaks may be, but they do add luster to a tale that well merits a new generation of readers.

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Recipient of a starred Kirkus review in 1957, this fictionalized twin portrait of teenage Richard II and his child bride, Isabelle of Valois, still shines—more so for at least some of the historical matter added to this digital edition.

In the course of an extended, high-friction romance with a noble younger son who throws in his lot with the usurping future King Henry IV, lady-in-waiting Isabella Clinton witnesses or reports on tumultuous events both in England and at the French royal court during and after Richard’s truncated reign. Some “enhancements” don’t enhance much, among them (dispensable) family trees and a background essay drawn from Wikipedia, plus distracting bolded words in the narrative (“I must be schooled in the courtesies of my breeding”) linked to a glossary. But several dozen inserted, mostly color, illustrations ranging from old prints and manuscript illuminations to modern photos of artifacts do extend the original edition’s rough line drawings to offer evocative (if not always exactly period) glimpses of the era’s figures, fashions and frivolities.

Uneven in value the new tweaks may be, but they do add luster to a tale that well merits a new generation of readers. (new list of recommended websites and videos added to the old bibliography) (Enhanced e-book/historical fiction. 12-14)

Pub Date: April 4, 2013

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crushed Lime Media

Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013

THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF AMERICAN CHILDREN'S POEMS

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THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF AMERICAN CHILDREN'S POEMS

by Donald Hall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 11, 1999

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Hall (The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America, 1985, etc.), offers up a chestnut-flavored alternative for younger readers, matching roughly contemporary illustrations to one or two selections from each of 57 American poets. To the usual suspects—Eugene Field’s “Wynken, Blynken and Nod,” Emily Dickinson’s “I’m nobody, who are you?” and even Carl Sandburg’s “Fog”—he adds more recent works from the likes of Jack Prelutsky, Gary Soto, Sandra Cisneros, and Janet S. Wong; he also includes three poems attributed somewhat baldly to an “Anonymous Native American.” The art comprises a gallery of American illustration, from crude 18th-century woodcuts, through Jessie Willcox Smith, to Marcia Brown and the Dillons. Writing that “poetry is most poetry when it makes noise,” Hall recommends these verses for reading aloud and memorization, exhorting parents and children to appreciate how they “preserve a moment of the American past.” A safe collection, seldom veering from the canon. (index) (Poetry. 9-11)

Pub Date: Nov. 11, 1999

ISBN: 0-19-512373-5

Page Count: 93

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MILKMAN'S BOY
by Donald Hall & illustrated by Greg Shed

- BOOK REVIEW
OLD HOME DAY
by Donald Hall & illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN WILLARD MET BABE RUTH
by Donald Hall & illustrated by Barry Moser

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RED-EYED TREE FROG

by Joy Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)