A quiet tale about a sensitive soul
An unnamed Cree boy learns from an elder master carver, a stray dog, and a porcupine.
A stray dog wanders into his family’s orbit and stays, so the boy and his brother call her Atim, the Cree word for dog. It’s hunting season. Last year the narrator realized he could not kill animals, but he is reluctant to tell his family. On his birthday, however, cousin Stan thoughtfully gives him a camera mounted on a gunstock so the boy can hunt in a different way. When Atim and the boy go hunting, they spy a porcupine up a tree. Atim startles it, and the porcupine replies in quills. With everybody’s help, the quills in Atim’s snout are removed, but the boy’s brother jeers at him for not protecting the dog with a real gun. Soon, Lindy, a master stone carver, visits and sees potential in the boy’s carvings, inviting the lad to spend a day with other stone artists, from whom the boy learns carving techniques and lessons about the porcupine. This is the second book in Pinkney’s Soapstone Signs series. Not a Cree by birth, Pinkney spent years as a development consultant near the Cree Nation. The book portrays a modern Cree family and includes Cree vocabulary, but his choice not to give his protagonist a name is a puzzling if not troubling one that may well confuse his readers.
A quiet tale about a sensitive soul . (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1472-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure.
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
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