This epic poem is an outgrowth of the stories a famous poet told his little daughter; it is a very personal book; Dickey's adult readers will share his enjoyment in "mythologizing" his own child. Young Bronwen must fight the evil of the one-footed terror, the All. Dark, which wants to take over and allow the things of the night a free rein. The King of the Squirrels asks her to defend them with the three-pronged gardening "traw" her father made for her. After Bronwen has faced the four forms of the All-Dark in combat, she comes back to her own home, family and garden. The poem is a little awkward to read aloud; the meter is complex and the language uneven, sometimes plain and childlike, sometimes stretched into overwrought images. This poetic fantasy is attractively presented as a picture book. Watson has caught the dark romantic tone of the poem in carefully detailed, imaginative black-and-white spreads. The dark tone is reminiscent of Sendak's Outside Over There but this is longer and more complex, with more adult than child appeal.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0152125809
Page Count: -
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1986
BOOK REVIEW
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
With the same delightfully irreverent spirit that he brought to his retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" (1987), Marshall enlivens another favorite. Although completely retold with his usual pungent wit and contemporary touches ("I don't mind if I do," says Goldilocks, as she tries out porridge, chair, and bed), Marshall retains the stories well-loved pattern, including Goldilocks escaping through the window (whereupon Baby Bear inquires, "Who was that little girl?"). The illustrations are fraught with delicious humor and detail: books that are stacked everywhere around the rather cluttered house, including some used in lieu of a missing leg for Papa Bear's chair; comically exaggerated beds—much too high at the head and the foot; and Baby Bear's wonderfully messy room, which certainly brings the story into the 20th century. Like its predecessor, perfect for several uses, from picture-book hour to beginning reading.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1988
ISBN: 0140563660
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988
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