Freshly illustrated with retro art from Yaccarino, this 1950 tale still stands up despite its references to a once-popular song that modern children probably won’t recognize. Little Ollie diligently practices his tuba, but all he can play is “Asleep in the Deep.” Though dogs and other animals gather round to listen attentively, his Mom and the neighbors soon rise up in protest and drive him from home, from the yard and even from a farmer’s field. Fetching up at last on the seashore, he rows out into a fog—to discover that an important bell buoy has disappeared, and only he and his instrument can guide an incoming passenger liner safely into harbor. The grateful town sends him to a (distant) music school. Since Ollie’s short pants and other details in the pictures’ urban and rural settings could pass for contemporary with the text, the blend of old and new is seamless. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-375-83903-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Golden Books/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2007
A direct riff on Night at the Museum. Also, by now younger readers will barely remember Jeter as a player, so the...
A young New York Yankees fan gets some unexpected help in his quest for an autograph from his favorite (ex) player.
Separated from his biracial (black/white) family in the hubbub following “the awesomest game ever!” Gideon finds himself deep in the bowels of Yankee Stadium—where, to his amazement, bats, balls, bases, rakes, buckets, and food items from cotton candy to sushi (“Sushi? At a baseball game?” “We always get a raw deal,” the smiling maki rolls explain) have all come to boisterous, chattery life. Ultimately Gideon finds his lost autograph book in the stadium’s Monument Park—in the hands of his (likewise biracial) hero Derek Jeter, who signs the cover and vanishes just as Gideon’s misplaced parents catch up. Bildner supplies an appropriately frisky narrative: “ ‘Of course we talk!’ the balls said bouncily. ‘We all talk!’ the bats added woodenly.” Booth lends the stadium’s shadowy back halls a convincing sense of dissociation from reality by cutting them into M.C. Escher–style zigzags. Otherwise he goes for a less subtle look in the illustrations by putting faces and, often, stick limbs on the baseball gear, giving Gideon histrionically excited postures and expressions throughout, and rendering Jeter (and Babe Ruth, who rears up from his plaque for a cameo) with numinous presence.
A direct riff on Night at the Museum. Also, by now younger readers will barely remember Jeter as a player, so the lionization may need some explanation. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2655-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Effectively soporific, though less broadly diverse in culture than casting.
Intricate cut-paper borders and figures accompany a set of sleepy-time lyrics and traditional rhymes.
Aside from “All the Pretty Little Ponies,” which is identified as “possibly African American,” the selections are a mostly Eurocentric sampling. It’s a mix of familiar anonymous rhymes (“Oh, how lovely is the evening,” “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, / Bless this bed that I lie on”) and verses from known authors, including Jane Taylor’s “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (first verse only), Robert Louis Stevenson’s “My Bed is a Boat,” and Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Seal’s Lullaby.” Melodramatic lullabies such as “Rockabye Baby” have been excluded in favor of more pacifistic poems, and in keeping with the cozy tone (though she does show one cat looming hungrily over a mouse hole), Dalton enfolds each entry in delicately detailed sprays of leaves or waves, graceful garlands of flowers, flights of butterflies, and tidy arrangements of natural or domestic items, all set against black or dark backgrounds that intensify the soft colors. A parade of young people—clad in nightclothes and diverse of facial features, hair color and texture, and skin hue—follow a childlike, white angel on the endpapers and pose drowsily throughout.
Effectively soporific, though less broadly diverse in culture than casting. (Picture book/poetry. 6-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4521-1673-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
