Come winter, the bear hibernates and many other creatures grow warm coats. The reasons for this are explained in a Haida Indian tale. Bear, created with the thickest fur, is uncomfortable under Sun's hot rays. He grabs the orb from the sky and hides it in a cave. A boy goes into Bear's cave, crops Bear's fur and leaves, sharing the shorn hair with the rest of the animal kingdom. Cold for the first time, Bear releases Sun. This well-developed retelling has a deft mix of the plausible and magical, which Oliviero (The Fish Skin, 1993, etc.) arranges around a generous core: No one has evil intent; all are simply seeking creature comfort. Each of new artist Hitchcock's highly stylized spreads are bracketed by totemic images; the pictures themselves are flat and sharply outlined, saturated with vibrant blues, greens, and yellows. These are dreamful, even transcendental, with an ancient, other-worldly feela vast, remote, sparsely populated landscape in which shape-shifting is possible. The whole work is unusually striking and compelling. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-7868-0031-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Ford uses each letter of the alphabet to illustrate an aspect of Kwanzaa, in a mix of English and non-English words; phonetic pronunciations are provided for non-English words, but not the language or country of origin. To the familiar—``A is for Africa'' and ``C is for candle''—Ford adds ``L is for lapa'' (a broad piece of cloth that African women wear) and ``M is for Mkeka'' (a special mat for the holiday table). Wilson-Max works with flat, simple shapes boldly outlined in black; these are cheerful and informative, with festive scenes of participants gathering to celebrate the principles of Kwanzaa. Other books cover the holiday more thoroughly, but this is certainly a charming and accessible beginning. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-92200-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1997
With its dazzling colors and big, simple, paper collage forms, this may draw fans of Byron Barton’s Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs (1989) and Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones (1990), but it’s strictly an also-ran. Between a lame, large-type rhyme at the top and several lines of commentary in smaller type below each scene, Barner (Fish Wish, 2000, etc.) alternates skeletal and fleshed-out portraits of five popular dinosaurs. Problem is that the skeleton paired with Spinosaurus belongs to some other (unspecified) creature, and—even novice dino fans will puzzle over this one—all of the T. Rexes have flat, plant-eater teeth. Also, Barner will leave most readers none the wiser by rightly noting that some dinosaurs had hips like birds, and some like lizards, but neither showing nor explaining the difference. The design wins no points either; background colors are so saturated that some blocks of text are indistinct, and the “Dino-meter” at the end is not a measurement chart (that appears on the previous spread), but a table of general facts. Give this one a miss. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8118-3158-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2001
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