A mother-son walk through a wintry landscape teaches readers the stories behind Chinese characters that represent things they see. Xiao Ming learns that symbol for snow is created by putting the character for hand underneath the one for rain: ``Rain and snow are both forms of water, but we can hold snow in our hands,'' explains the mother. Each passage of text opens with a drawing of a Chinese character, followed by the mother's easy-to-remember words. Lee's beautiful cut-paper collages use colored paper to perceptively capture the texture of snow. The paper used to represent a skating rink is hatch-marked to resemble the scritch-scratch of skate blades. Curly fibers make a good snow-laden sky, and white paint speckles add snow to pine boughs, tree trunks, and coats. A border of white paper snowflakes encloses each picture and works as a clever link between the medium (paper) and the setting. Other books have explored the stories Chinese characters tell: Peggy Goldstein's Long is a Dragon (1991) presents a simple dictionary; Kurt Wiese's You Can Write Chinese (1945) uses stereotypes in the illustrations. Lee's book is a welcome update to these volumes, refreshingly contemporary and upbeat. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8050-3172-3
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A girl with a passion for pink discovers that the monochromatic life may not be a bed of roses after all. Much like Roald Dahl’s Violet, this little girl doesn’t know when to say enough, as she over-indulges in the pinker-than-pink cupcakes she and her mother have made. Even when she awakens to discover she is a vivid pink hue, the girl is delighted. However, when her continual consumption of the pastry results in her color deepening to a red, she knows she must listen to her doctor and consume the antidote of—what else—green foods. Kann’s snappy prose is filled with subtle puns and jokes—the girls calls herself “pinkerella” and “pinkerbelle”—to keep astute readers chuckling. The tale is over the top enough to engage older readers while the younger set will be fascinated by the thought of becoming their favorite color. Kann’s computer-enhanced, full-color illustrations are a continuation of the zaniness. Bold colors and collage-style accents create a surreal landscape in which a child turning pink seems to be almost normal. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-077639-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2006
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