A prehistoric boy leaves his cave in search of warmth and discovers there’s no cave like his own. When Boy awakes in the cold morning of his home cave, his parents invite him to share their blankets. Boy doesn’t want to share and heads into the Stone Age landscape to find his own warm place. His search leads to a tree branch in a warm forest, but the resident saber-toothed tiger refuses to share. Boy moves on to warm grass, but the local woolly mammoth chases him away. Next, Boy finds warm red rocks, but the inhabiting dinosaur ejects him. Then Boy locates a warm mountain that turns into a hot volcano that sends him racing home, happy to share his parent’s blankets. Simple text and marvelous illustrations reminiscent of prehistoric cave paintings showcase Boy’s diminutive, solitary figure against a vast, empty world. Perfect for young adventurers about to enter their own brave new worlds. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-65106-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004
Eager to prove his wisdom and worthiness to become King of the Nile, Baby Crocodile swims up the river in search of the answer to Crookedy Crocodile’s riddle (the classic St. Ives nursery rhyme localized). He asks an assortment of objects and animals—the Great Sphinx, a cobra, a frog, a perch, a cat and the statue of Alexander the Great. After much confusion and no further ahead in his response, he finally arrives at the Temple Kom Ombo where he encounters Sobek, the “colossal Crocodile God,” who tells him “there is only one simple answer.” Realizing the answer, Baby Crocodile returns to the river with “a crown of lotus flowers” on his head, becoming King. As she did in Made in China (2006), Nash uses the story line to provide a tour of ancient and modern Egypt with a dual text describing the sights, culture and customs combining ancient and new settings. Mixed-media paintings imitating hieroglyphic artwork of figures in profile pose include sand from Egypt and gold foil. Factual information presented, however brief, could be enhanced with a short bibliography or suggested reading list, as Tamar Bower does in the more authentic-looking and beautiful rendition of the story, How the Amazon Queen Fought the Prince of Egypt (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-84507-466-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
A young girl dreams of the day peace will come to contemporary Afghanistan, the war-torn country she loves.
Letting her imagination soar, a little girl looks to the sky and visualizes flying the “bright kite of peace” across Afghanistan into “people’s houses, their homes, their families, their hearts.” She sees her dream in children’s smiles and eyes, “a wonderful dream in which we all hold hands” and the “sound of war has truly gone forever.” She envisions a future filled with hope, opportunity and harmony. Speaking idealistically in the present tense, the little girl’s voice rings with compelling optimism, and her verbal images of the sky, kites, soaring and flying are visually reinforced in elegant, wistful illustrations that compositionally sweep the eye diagonally upward across the page from left to right. Somber, gray pencil drawings and tan backgrounds reflect the current bleak Afghan reality, while blue headscarves and red kites provide hopeful accents. Powerful images of dancing kites, ascending doves, women in burqas, a child playing with toys made from trash and flowers sprouting from tanks juxtapose the real and the aspirational. While topically relevant, the absence of historical, political or cultural context for the current Afghan crisis may leave young readers somewhat clueless. Ardent advocacy for Afghan peace. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-84-15503-04-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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