The team that gave us City Alphabet (2009) takes on urban numbers in the same inventive way, still holding readers at a slight emotional distance. Beam takes pictures. He sees numbers everywhere: painted on Dumpsters, printed on cardboard, burnt into metal, carved in stone. This book is not for children just learning their numbers. Instead of presenting a simple 1-20 sequence, it starts with a row of zeros, continue with 1/2, find 2.5 percent in neon in a loan-office window, double-O seven in a metal road plate, 18 kg on a bag of garden rocks. Schwartz adds the utterly clear and utterly brief text: each number spelled out and a description ("Eleven / Spray-painted on cement. / Sidewalk"). The photographs are gritty and textured, always showing the odd angle or the slant light. The numerals as they are printed are a dropped-out image on a white ground: The number nine is the translucent, iridescent blue of the vinyl sticker on a storefront; the final image of a cardboard barcode reflects the same worn and stained paper. Like the first, this is more an artist’s book than one for little children, but it does effectively invite readers to enjoy close and repeated examination of the form, shape and whimsy of numbers. (Picture book. 10 & up)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55498-081-9
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
A spellbinding story about friendship and the power of prose.
Rosemary and her friends explore memory and relationships through Shakespeare's works in Zimmerman’s debut novel.
Books engulf Rosemary Bennett's life. She and her mother, Claudia, a professor of English and a Shakespeare aficionado, live in the old house of their village's poet, Constance Brooke. While her father’s books remind her of his absence, the rest of her bookshelf recalls fond memories with her best friend, Adam, and his sister, Shelby. Adam and Rosie work together on a school poetry project about Brooke, whose Alzheimer’s makes it hard to remember her faithful visitors. Shelby’s busy high school life is making it hard for her to remember Rosie and Adam too. But when Shelby falls victim to a magical hidden book in the cupboard, Adam and Rosie must fight to keep her and her memory alive. Zimmerman invites readers into a layered and magical mystery across generations of literature. She deftly weaves the difficulty of loss into a tale of triumph, Rosemary’s strength of character keeping her buoyed through the emotional tumult she must navigate to save her friend. The sober subject matter demonstrates Zimmerman’s understanding of what young readers face in real life, and the addictive flow of magic and suspense will keep pages turning until the very end.
A spellbinding story about friendship and the power of prose. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-44537-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, well-written tale about an unusual friendship.
A middle-grade boy finds comfort and emotional growth in his friendship with an older woman in this novel.
Summer vacation isn’t starting out well for Russell, called Rusty. He failed fifth grade math and now has to go to summer school. His closest pal, Walter, is at sleepaway camp for six weeks. But worst of all, his mother is temporarily gone, being treated for depression; it’s unknown when she’ll return. Rusty takes his mind off things by fixing up an old catboat. One day, Hazel Perkins, an older woman in a wheelchair, asks him to take her sailing. Rusty puts her off but later agrees to earn money by doing chores at her house. They settle into a comforting routine, starting with a snack and math homework, then chores. Besides the money, Rusty appreciates Hazel’s agreeably cluttered house, her seaside paintings, and her friendly cat, Marigold. The day before his mother’s return, Rusty finally takes Hazel for a joyous sail. Though sorrow follows, Rusty gains a firmer sense of what’s important. In his third book for children, Loizeaux sensitively evokes his narrator’s pain and confusion as well as his insights. Rusty realizes he can repair his boat, “unlike some of the other things that I couldn’t do anything about.” Poetically striking details make scenes come alive, as with Hazel’s house, filled with “books, shells, pottery, dried seaweed, lacy snake skins…and an entire standing skeleton of what might have been a fox.” That Rusty allows himself to be changed by Hazel’s friendship and guidance speaks well of him in a subtle way, and it’s touching to see their mutual caring and compassion. Throughout, the author effectively employs maritime metaphors to tie everything together. Jacobsen’s lively, well-composed pencil illustrations nicely capture the book’s emotions.
A moving, well-written tale about an unusual friendship.Pub Date: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-947159-42-6
Page Count: 186
Publisher: One Elm Books
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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