In an original story with Celtic roots, a superstitious laird believes that “a pair of trousers sewn by the light of the full moon in the graveyard of old St. Andrew’s church” will bring him luck. He offers a sackful of gold to the one who sews the trousers. Despite the rumors that St. Andrew’s is haunted by a fearsome beast, and despite the fact that those who have gone after the beast have never returned, Lucy Dove—a seamstress with her eyes on a comfortable retirement, and one cool customer—answers the laird’s challenge. She heads for the churchyard during “the twilight space between sunset and moonrise,” and sits down to sew. When the monster—all pointed teeth, blazing eyes, and ropey neck—rises from the grave beside her, Lucy keeps right on sewing, commenting that he must be “the wee bogle” featured in children’s bedtime stories. Lucy’s cheek buys her just enough time to finish the trousers and hightail it to the laird to collect her reward, with the furious bogle in hot pursuit. Told in lilting, colorful language, Del Negro presents a woman with mettle enough for beasts mythical and real, while Gore’s sweeping acrylic illustrations, overlaid with a hatching of fine white lines, provide a properly spooky setting of twisting branches, cracked gravestones, and looming ravens. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-7894-2514-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rylant's debut as a picture book illustrator (not to be confused with her board book debut as a collagist in The Everyday Books, 1993) offers sweet comfort to all who have lost loved ones, pets or otherwise. ``When dogs go to Heaven, they don't need wings because God knows that dogs love running best. He gives them fields. Fields and fields and fields.'' There are geese to bark at, plenty of children, biscuits, and, for those that need them, homes. In page- filling acrylics, small, simply brushed figures float against huge areas of bright colors: pictures infused with simple, doggy joy. At the end, an old man leans on a cane as he walks up a slope toward a small white dog: ``Dogs in Dog Heaven may stay as long as they like. . . .They will be there when old friends show up. They will be there at the door.'' Pure, tender, lyrical without being overearnest, and deeply felt. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-590-41701-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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