A wonderfully charming mixture of myth and fairy tale.
When her brave father is trapped inside the Sphinx, a fearful young girl must summon her courage to save him.
Marcy Brownstone’s father is a brave explorer who, in the previous volume, Arthur and the Golden Rope (2016), had exciting adventures based on Norse mythology. Harboring fears of the dark, Marcy worries she has not been imbued with the same fortitude as her father. When her father leaves on a quest to retrieve a magical book he believes will help her, he becomes trapped inside the Sphinx that holds it. Marcy must now gather up her resolve and carry out his rescue. This extrication is not without its challenges, as Marcy encounters larger-than-life Egyptian gods, including Thoth, Isis, and Ra. Weaving the theme of finding courage with a whimsical mix of Egyptian mythology, Todd-Stanton has constructed a remarkable world that both delights and edifies. The lush, immersive illustrations, with many full-page action sequences, are sure to enchant and envelop readers. Marcy’s white, heteronormative family gives a nod to conventional fairy-tale tropes with her nearly absent mother (who does make a fleeting cameo). However, Todd-Stanton weaves in a gentle feminist flourish as timid Marcy overcomes her fears to save her father and creates a thoughtfully distinctive take on the father-daughter relationship.
A wonderfully charming mixture of myth and fairy tale. (Picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-19-5
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
A little girl’s mom leads her from princess dress-up to real women in a brief tale that does not let its earnestness get in the way of the fun.
Some of the language is a bit awkward (“spinning like a diamond”? “a daring new dame”?), and the gouache-and-collage images, with their rubbery facial expressions and flattened perspectives, share that clumsiness. It’s hard not to cheer, however, when on Monday the unnamed little girl puts on goggles like Amelia Earhart, on Tuesday sings like Ella (Fitzgerald), on Wednesday is Elizabeth the Super Suffragist and continues through the week with Scientist Marie (Curie), chef Julia (Child), ballerina Maria (Tallchief) and artist Frida (Kahlo). She ends hoping little girls will dress up like her someday. All this playacting is performed to an appreciative audience of friends and toys. The colors are bright and the textures amusing (Julia’s fish is made of newsprint with a recipe for Hot Tuna Loaf Sandwich). It is good to see that ethnicity plays no part in whom the protagonist chooses to emulate. Biographies of the women named (each only a few sentences long) and a rather odd bibliography of picture books—and Mastering the Art of French Cooking—conclude the text. Inspired little girls may be unhappy to see that the paper doll and outfits on the endpapers are pasted down, though. In all, another happy antidote to the princess plague. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-86092-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
Bessie is irritated that she cannot go hiking with her brothers and her father, because it is thought too strenuous for...
Through the voice of 10-year-old Bessie in 1896 in Berkeley, Calif., readers glimpse a moment in the very long fight for women’s suffrage in the United States.
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Bessie is irritated that she cannot go hiking with her brothers and her father, because it is thought too strenuous for girls. Instead, she helps her mother prepare for a tea honoring the great suffragist Susan B. Anthony, whom everyone calls Aunt Susan. Bessie thrills to her speech at the Golden Gate Auditorium and marches for the vote with her mother, although men scream at them and boys pelt them with eggs. Women lose that California referendum, but Bessie teaches her mother to ride a bicycle, and her father takes her hiking at last. Schuett’s rich gouache paintings have the texture and heft of oils, and she captures the beauty of the suffragists’ white dresses and gold and purple ribbons, as well as the women’s strength and determination. The story is based on that of Bessie Keith Pond, who came from a family of suffragists. A series of short boxed notes about Bessie, California suffrage, Susan B. Anthony and endpapers decorated with excellent newspaper clippings, posters, postcards and photographs round out this work for young readers not ready for Ann Bausum’s stunning With Courage and Cloth(2004).Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-56145-593-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
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