The endearing, honey-colored hero of James Bear's Pie (1992), ``a rugby player, a singer, and a vegetarian,'' plays a gentle game with the crickets and caterpillars when he's not munching the grasses they inhabit and enjoys singing in ``the Trout and Cricket Choir.'' His friend Skunk, skeptical about the trout (they sing ``quietly,'' Bear explains), makes him promise not to trick the gullible geese with his stories. But they want a story; Bear can't resist obliging, and soon the geese are huddled in a hole Bear's dug, happily imagining the ``golden age'' he's described and, apparently, humming. But are they? Slyly, Bear admits, ``Yes and no.'' The delicately whimsical story is enhanced by Franco-Feeny's affectionate, meticulously detailed art, depicting this peaceable kingdom with rare humor and imagination. Perhaps because Latimer is never tempted by sentimentality, and because his playful stories always seem to have intriguing philosophical subtexts, they are never insubstantial. This one might be profitably compared with MacLachlan's The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt (1988); it will be fun to discover what younger children make of it. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-684-19526-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Dooley (Everybody Bakes Bread, 1996, etc.) dishes up another premise for Carrie to eat her way around her multicultural neighborhood. Thornton again offers framed, lifeless illustrations that stick to a predictable text. Today is a snow day at school and Christmas approaches. Carrie is tapped out after buying gifts for everybody except Mom, who always wants “anything that comes from your heart.” She hopes to earn money by shoveling snow. But when she helps Tito shovel his walk and steps, he tells her the landlord won’t pay, although they can warm up with a bowl of his sister Fendra’s Puerto Rican pea soup. Carrie gets the recipe. John has a cold and can’t shovel, but his mom offers a cup of Greek lemon-chicken soup and the recipe. And so it goes—recipes pour in along with Mark’s mom’s corn chowder, Darlene’s grandaunt’s oxtail soup, and Wendy’s mom’s miso soup. Recipes, however, don’t buy gifts, and at the end of the day Carrie has earned only ten dollars from Dad. That and Mrs. Max’s idea are enough to buy Mom’s gift—a blank book in which Carrie can write her newfound recipes. Preparing for Hanukkah, Mrs. Max reminds Carrie that “good soup with a friend warms more than the body.” The recipes included give readers an opportunity to test that notion in a book more cookery than fiction, more work-a-day than holiday. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2000
ISBN: 1-57505-422-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
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