Although the text lacks the heft of traditional folklore, the author/illustrator draws on his Peace Corps background to cook...
Yoyo’s mother says that no fair price for bitterleaf stew can be refused; to do so risks angering Brother Coin, the Great Spirit of the Market.
After rushing her preparations, the Cameroonian girl turns down a customer who offers ten-ten say-fah for her poor concoction (her mother says it’s fit only for the goats), instead of the usual fifty-fifty paid for Mama Cécile’s excellent stew. Their luck sours, and Yoyo decides that she must appease Brother Coin. When she does so, she witnesses a scary sight. The god, a caricature of a greedy man, refuses his blessing to a beseeching merchant and makes him disappear. Yoyo then uses her market bowl to make a perfect portion of bitterleaf stew. Brother Coin laps up the dish after making a hurried blessing only at the girl’s insistence. In a confusing ending, the Great Spirit says he still will not grant wishes, but gives Yoyo back her special bowl, used for collecting coins at their stall. The girl miraculously arrives at home, and mother and daughter now prosper due to Yoyo’s change of character. The slightly satiric edge of the images, combining deeply colored acrylic paintings with collage in Photoshop, creates a contemporary look for this original tale. Adapted recipe included.
Although the text lacks the heft of traditional folklore, the author/illustrator draws on his Peace Corps background to cook up a cautionary, but tasty look at life in Cameroon. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58089-368-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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