A father curses his seven sons and they turn into ravens in this ever-popular tale. Here the basic ribs of the story remain the same, from the sister's remorse that she, even innocently, was the cause of the brothers' transformation, to her difficult journey, subsequent sacrifice, and salvation. It's an edge-of-the-seat tale and chillingly macabre in Bell's translation, which doesn't fiddle with the scene in which the girl cuts off her finger to use as a key for passage into a glass mountain. Sauvant works in a surreal style, with Magritte-like skies and an obsession with time and space that becomes almost clichÇd. The symbolism of the pictures overwhelms the nuances of the story: When the sister appears with all her fingers in place in the last scene, but no restoration is mentioned in the text, children are likely to read it as a mistake. (Picture book/folklore. 5-8)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-55858-458-7
Page Count: 28
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As atmospheric as its companion, Twilight Comes Twice, this tone poem pairs poetically intense writing with luminescent oils featuring widely spaced houses, open lawns, and clumps of autumnal trees, all lit by a huge full moon. Fletcher tracks that moon’s nocturnal path in language rich in metaphor: “With silent slippers / it climbs the night stairs,” “staining earth and sky with a ghostly glow,” lighting up a child’s bedroom, the wings of a small plane, moonflowers, and, ranging further afield, harbor waves and the shells of turtle hatchlings on a beach. Using creamy brushwork and subtly muted colors, Kiesler depicts each landscape, each night creature from Luna moths to a sleepless child and her cat, as well as the great moon sweeping across star-flecked skies, from varied but never vertiginous angles. Closing with moonset, as dawn illuminates the world with a different kind of light, this makes peaceful reading either in season, or on any moonlit night. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-16451-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
A potential gift for fans of the contributors’ earlier work.
A text-heavy, joke-filled monograph about a dreaded bestowal.
In this meta text, an unseen narrator gripes about everything they wish they had received as a present, including a dog and a skateboard. “Now I feel like I have to read it,” the narrator grumps about their book gift. In subsequent spreads, they express their frustration. Sensitive bibliophiles beware: The narrator is ruthless in their scorn of giving books as presents. Some may tire of the message, repeated page after page in different ways: “Look, I’m a doer, not a reader,” one page reads, accompanied by an image of a muscled arm. The narrator makes references to clogging the toilet with homemade slime (“I told them it most definitely wasn’t me”)—a moment that will appeal to older kids who can grasp and revel in the humor. Human skin is shown as printer paper white, tan, and blue. Layouts are boisterous yet uncluttered, using text in various sizes, colors, and fonts. Pleasant near-pastel yellow, blue, and purple back up goofy illustrations, sure to draw interest even if the quips go over younger kids’ heads. Some elements, like the desire to receive X-ray vision as a present, will resonate widely with the target audience, though the story largely treads similar ground as Greenfield and Lowery’s I Don’t Want To Read This Book (2021). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A potential gift for fans of the contributors’ earlier work. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-46236-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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