An uneven dozen of "Fantasy and Science Fiction Tales About Humans Who Can Change Their Shapes." As most of the stories depend on the shock of the switch, they tend in the aggregate to cancel each other's effectiveness. The stronger entries include an old-fashioned "Sailor Boy's Tale" by Isak Dinesen, a well-made werewolf story by Saki, and Donald Hall's more everyday fantasy about a boy who finds himself trapped within his "Wonderful Dog Suit." Like Manley and Lewis (above), Yolen prefaces each selection with notes of her own. These bits of lore blend easily with the more conventional stories, but her items on the cockroach, for example, are ludicrously irrelevant to Kafka's "Metamorphosis"—a story which, in any case, belongs in a different league entirely. Not the most fortuitous coming together, even though piece by piece Yolen's selections reflect a classier taste than do those in Nature's Revenge.
Pub Date: April 1, 1978
ISBN: 0816432120
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Seabury
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1978
Beginning invitingly with "warm smells" of bread, rolls, cakes, tarts and cookies (and a cat perched on a red-brick oven) Walter the baker's story ends lamely when he invents the pretzel in answer to the duke's demand for a roll containing "the rising sun, the noontime sun and the setting sun" (the pretzel, Walter explains, has three holes through which the sun can shine). The splashy tissue-paper collages of coarsely comic peasant figures and a cozy half-timbered town are as pointlessly hybrid as the tale.
Pub Date: March 22, 1972
ISBN: 0689800789
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1972
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A creative story teaches children ways to be kind.
A second grade teacher uses an invented machine to teach students about kindness in a picture book by author Christina Dankert and illustrator Chad Dankert.
Cora is confused when Mr. Wilson asks the class if anybody has a superpower. “What if I told you that ALL of you have a superpower?” he asks. Mr. Wilson then unveils the latest of his “extraordinary inventions”: the Kindness Machine, a contraption with levers, buttons, springs, and a screen at the top. When a button is pressed, the screen shows “an example of how to practice kindness.” Mr. Wilson helpfully elaborates. For instance, when the screen reads “LOVE YOURSELF,” he explains that while it’s “important to be kind to others,” self-compassion is vital, too. “If you make a mistake, tell yourself that it’s okay,” he says. When Cora presses a button, the screen reads, “BE A CHEF.” Mr. Wilson says: “Kindness is like baking a cake. The ideas from the Kindness Machine are your ingredients….The real magic happens when you combine them.” The students acknowledge that kindness involves superpowerlike actions, and the next time Mr. Wilson asks if anybody has a superpower, everyone raises a hand. Mr. Wilson’s examples of kindness are practical and easy to apply, such as offering smiles and compliments. Christina Dankert, a second grade teacher, writes from experience, and Chad Dankert gives his digitized full-color pictures a fun, cartoonlike quality. Cora has dark skin and interacts with classmates who have diverse skin tones, and a helpful list of discussion questions encourages children to think further about what they’ve read.
A creative story teaches children ways to be kind.Pub Date: March 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-955119-08-5
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Purple Butterfly Press
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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