Readers who play Dungeons and Dragons or the card game Magic may be surprised to discover that the drama behind chess is similar to the games they enjoy. A magical wind blows a young boy onto a chessboard, where the kings and queens send him on a mission to find the Gamemaster, with the help of an amulet belonging to one of the queens. The young hero meets all the other chess pieces in their human forms—pawns, rooks, knights, bishops. When no Gamemaster appears at the end of his travails, the boy turns to the amulet; it is a mirror and he is the Gamemaster. The ending of John Bochak's first book is clichÇd and the underlying message—that chess schools players in self-knowledge—is fairly subtle for the picture book crowd. They will be busy with the animated cut-paper collage illustrations: a mix of marbled and colored papers that recall a romanticized Middle Ages, where pawns are miraculously clean-shaven and class distinctions vanquished. This interesting fantasy neither recreates the history of chess nor provides a satifying alternative to role-playing games. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-689-80292-7
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
Sloat collaborates with Huffman, a Yu’pik storyteller, to infuse a traditional “origins” tale with the joy of creating. Hearing the old women of her village grumble that they have only tasteless crowberries for the fall feast’s akutaq—described as “Eskimo ice cream,” though the recipe at the end includes mixing in shredded fish and lard—young Anana carefully fashions three dolls, then sings and dances them to life. Away they bound, to cover the hills with cranberries, blueberries, and salmonberries. Sloat dresses her smiling figures in mixes of furs and brightly patterned garb, and sends them tumbling exuberantly through grassy tundra scenes as wildlife large and small gathers to look on. Despite obtrusively inserted pronunciations for Yu’pik words in the text, young readers will be captivated by the action, and by Anana’s infectious delight. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-88240-575-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
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