bookshelf

TICKETY TOCK

Name: TICKETY TOCK
Author: Jason Robert Brown
ISBN: 978-0-06-078752-3

by Jason Robert Brown and illustrated by Mary GrandPré ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2009

bookshelf

Tailor Schmuel learned to make time useful, to work and not stop “until that old clock says so!” Consequently, Schmuel refuses to take time to understand a young girl’s request for a special white-and-blue dress with “a little red heart.” Days lead into months and years. Schmuel, now 41, laments his missed opportunity, but the clock on the wall urges him, “Tockety-tick tock! / I give you all the time you need! / Tickety-tock tick! / Just do it and you’ll be happy!” and turns time back, allowing him to create the dress, reverse his lonely fate and wed his beautifully dressed bride. GrandPré’s double-page spreads feature honey-gold and twilight-blue and -purple hues in combined gouache-and-fabric collage art and artfully depict a boy’s progression from child to man. Brown’s tale unfolds in an irregular poetic format with an uneven rhyme that guides the oral reader along. However enjoyable it sounds aloud, however, its message—of the value of second chances and stopping to live life in the now—seems aimed more at adults than children. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-06-078752-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Laura Geringer/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
13
by Jason Robert Brown & Dan Elish

bookshelf

WHY?

by Lindsay Camp ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1999

bookshelf

In a spirited book, Camp grabs the notion of a child’s endless inquisitiveness and takes it for a quick spin. Lily, a little charmer that Ross has drawn as an explosion of red hair, drives her father crazy with her question. Why does the breakfast egg need one more minute? Why must they not forget to pick up garbage bags at the store? Why are there rain clouds? One day, just as her father shows signs that his limit has been exceeded, a giant Thargon spaceship appears at the playground and threatens to annihilate Earth. Lily poses a “Why?” or two, and the Thargons return home for the answers, leaving Earth intact. Lily’s questioning saves the day, but it’s no joke; the urge to understand, for her and children like her, is a survival instinct. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-399-23396-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

bookshelf

THE MAGIC HILL

by A.A. Milne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000

bookshelf

Pooh might describe this 1925 offering from Milne as a Very Small Tale, and so it is, but gentle and sweet withal. Princess Daffodil is the only daughter after six sons of the king and queen, and at her christening the Fairy Mumruffin grants her the gift of flowers, which will grow wherever she steps. When the princess begins toddling about the king’s favorite thinking place, strewing flowers everywhere, the king decides she must keep off the paths entirely. After a few years of this, the doctor pronounces that she must do what little girls do: “She must run about more. She must climb hills and roll down them. She must hope and skip and jump.” So the queen finds a solution in a small hill, where Daffodil can do all those things to her heart’s content, and where children play and pick the posies she makes there. Brown, who remembered the story from her own mother’s telling, who remembered it from her mother, has created delicate and winsome illustrations that are also precise: the various species of flowers are easily identifiable. Children will be charmed by the little doll-like faces of the characters and the excellent fairy colors, pastel-colored to jewel-toned as needed. (Picture book. 4-7)