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
While social studies teachers and/or those of German heritage seem likely to be the most enthusiastic audience, the...
This import offers a straightforward account of the reasons why a German family immigrates to America and how they fare initially, along with a brief look at the lives of their descendants.
Raidt's conversational text begins with a brisk summary of the economic situation in Germany in the 1850s. This explains why the Peterses choose to leave behind family, farm and friends in 1869 in search of a new life in the United States. Blocks of text are accompanied by Holtei’s delicately lined and colored illustrations; they are not etchings, but they recall Arthur Geisert in perspective and detail. These vignettes and double-page spreads add detail and assist in imparting information while also bringing characters and setting to life. Together, words and pictures outline the family’s journey in the steerage section, their trip overland to Nebraska and their subsequent prosperity. Skipping several generations, their contemporary descendants are introduced in the final fourth of the book. Motivated by a school project, they reverse the trip and return to Germany to seek out the house from which their ancestors emigrated. Children are part of both families, and the present-day Peterses are a multiethnic family, both elements adding interest and appeal.
While social studies teachers and/or those of German heritage seem likely to be the most enthusiastic audience, the narrative style, informal tone and attractive artwork broaden it significantly. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58089-630-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
Stylized and idealized but with some potential as a discussion starter.
A young traveler discovers a world of wonders hidden in a seemingly ordinary word.
Though assured by his industrious parents that there is nothing beyond their rural cottage but “work and more work,” Tom sets out to see for himself. Odd jobs eventually lead him to sail off to encounter tea in China, indigo in a busy Indian marketplace and cinnamon in tropical Ceylon. Years later he returns to tell his parents that all over the world “people are busy making beautiful things.” “I told you so,” responds his mother. “Wherever you go—just work and more work.” The narrative is a bare recitation of events, but in her afterword, Little explains that she visualizes Tom as starting out near Liverpool around 1840, then goes on to describe in some detail his parents’ occupations and how tea, indigo and cinnamon were harvested and prepared for export at that time. Showing technical dazzle but a fussy sensibility, Pérez renders foliage, architectural features and period dress in precise, superfine detail but gives human figures oversized heads, studied gestures, and tiny hands and feet. Moreover, though Tom is supposedly gone long enough to become “a young man and quite different from the boy who had left,” in the illustrations he ages not at all, greeting his parents wearing the same clothes he set out in.
Stylized and idealized but with some potential as a discussion starter. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55498-383-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
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