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THE FULL BELLY BOWL

Name: THE FULL BELLY BOWL
Author: Jim Aylesworth
ISBN: 0-689-81033-4

by Jim Aylesworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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A concise and covertly cautionary original folktale is complemented by precise and charming colored-pencil illustrations in this wholly delightful book. When a very old man, who lives in a tiny house at the edge of a forest with his cat, Angelina, rescues a very small man from the jaws of a fox, he is rewarded with a full belly bowl. “You need never know hunger again,” says the tiny note beneath the gift. “Use it wisely or it will be a burden.” Wise use of magical objects isn’t as easy as it sounds. The bowl recreates its contents in quantity, and at first that’s enough stew to sate man and cat; readers see it in a sequence of stills atop a spread of man and cat happily sleeping it off. The very old man neglects to turn over the bowl, however, and a spider that creeps in overnight is duplicated in spades. The man realizes that the bowl duplicates whatever is in it: his single copper penny, then an errant mouse, then cats to catch the mice, until the bowl is knocked to the floor where it shatters. The magic is gone, but the regrets are few in this thoroughly realized, easy-to-cherish tale. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-689-81033-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE LITTLEST MATRYOSHKA

by Corinne Demas Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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PLB 0-7868-2125-6 As is true for Pam Conrad’s Tub People, the events in a matryoshka doll’s life depend on external manipulations and circumstances; in this case, it makes the story of a perilous journey fall somewhat flat. A set of the nesting dolls is carved in a Russian village and then sent to a toy shop in America. The outer doll, Anna, has been instructed by the maker to watch over her siblings—“Keep your sisters safe inside you”—but there is nothing she can do when the smallest doll, Nina, is accidentally brushed off the counter and unceremoniously kicked out the door. It is an odyssey in which she has absolutely no active part, nor does she have reactions, for all she possesses is a blank matryoshka face. In the meantime, a young girl who has bought the rest of the set on sale charmingly tucks a little wad of cotton into the next-to-smallest doll so she won’t feel empty. Brown’s atmospheric but docile watercolors often view the matryoshka dolls from a distance, furthering the sense that the story is about events surrounding the dolls, instead of the dolls themselves. An author’s note on the history of matryoshkas is a welcome touch. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-7868-0153-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Hyperion

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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IN THE PALM OF DARKNESS

by Mayra Montero & translated by Edith Grossman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1997

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In The Palm Of Darkness ($21.00; May 1997; 192 pp.; 0-06-018703- 4): A Cuban writers's intensely imaginative portrait of the extremities of Haitian culture rings some fresh changes on the overfamiliar theme of intellectual arrogance humbled by its collision with ``elemental'' peasant wisdom. Montero subtly builds up a revealing contrast between Victor Griggs, a European herpetologist searching for the remaining specimens of an endangered species of amphibian, and his native guide Thierry Adrien's memories of his family's encounter with the island's ubiquitous spirits. This truly original novel is studded with surprises—not least of which is the concept of a species suddenly and entirely disappearing in a milieu where the living and the dead are known to mingle together more or less matter-of-factly. A refreshingly sophisticated treat. (Author tour)