Visually boisterous, great fun to read aloud, and likely to incite some “wond’ring” along with the laughter.
Raschka injects fresh whimsy into a bit of linguistic tomfoolery from one of the poet’s letters to his younger sister.
The poem has been illustrated before—notably by Ezra Jack Keats (1965)—but Raschka’s free-form brushwork and love of bright color contrasts seem particularly suited to the autobiographical (more or less) verses’ quick tumble of chopped lines and rhymes. Having “followéd his Nose / To the North, / To the North,” a “naughty boy” writes in cool weather and warm (“Och the charm”), makes “Of fish a pretty Kettle / A Kettle!” and observes that in Scotland “the ground / Was as hard, / That a yard / Was as long, / That a song / Was as merry” as in England. The words propel themselves along: “So he stood in his shoes / And he wonder’d, / He wonder’d, / He stood in his shoes // And he wonder’d.” The illustrations are equally playful. The endpapers present views of the Scottish coast and New York separated only by a narrow blue band labeled “Much Water,” for instance. Raschka depicts a light-brown lad with windblown hair and a red cap, first running, then walking ever more contemplatively along broad tracks that turn out to be arrows pointing him onward.
Visually boisterous, great fun to read aloud, and likely to incite some “wond’ring” along with the laughter. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5090-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Delicious! (period photograph, author’s note, timeline, selected bibliography of adult sources) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)
Miller shares the true story of the invention of the doughnut with the hole in its center.
Hanson Gregory began his career at sea in 1844, at age 13, eventually captaining cargo schooners and clippers. As cook’s assistant in 1847, while preparing the usual deep-fried cakes for breakfast, Hanson had an idea. The sailors called the cakes “sinkers”: they were crisp at the edges but raw and greasy in the middle. Using the lid from a pepper tin to cut a hole in each cake’s center, Hanson fried a batch of cakes that “were brown, and sweet, and fully cooked. Sighs of delight rose above the noisy sea. A new breakfast tradition was born.” The author’s research unfolds a couple of colorful, alternate legends of the doughnut’s seagoing origins, since, naturally, “sailors like their stories bold.” Miller also recounts comments that Capt. Gregory made in a 1916 newspaper interview. “He laughed as he teased the reporter that he had invented ‘the first hole ever seen by mortal eyes.’ ” Kirsch’s charming watercolor collages liberally employ round motifs: on many spreads, the circular illustration on the right page is “cut” from the left, freeing up a circle of white space for text. Endpapers sport scores of holey doughnuts, many decorated nautically, and semaphore flags on the copyright page spell out “eat doughnuts.” Kirsch does not, however, take the opportunity to represent the racial diversity of 19th-century sailing crews.
Delicious! (period photograph, author’s note, timeline, selected bibliography of adult sources) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)Pub Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-544-31961-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
Upbeat and celebratory—like Pops himself.
Cline-Ransome traces Armstrong’s storied arc, from an impoverished New Orleans childhood to his apex as a giant of jazz.
The episodic narrative, studded with place names, locates in “Little Louis’ ” tough early days the keys to his musical education. Louis helps his family by hauling coal, selling newspapers, and picking through garbage. New Orleans’ omnipresent music permeates his being: “Every day, outside his window, Little Louis listened up and down the streets, to the music of brass bands, funeral marches, honky-tonks on Saturday nights.” Captivated by brilliant cornetist Joe “King” Oliver, Louis buys a pawn-shop cornet, harmonizes in a street band—and runs afoul of the police once too often. Sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys, Louis “missed his mama, his sister, and his cornet.” The facility has a performing band, however—and Louis wins over its teacher. In one of several interspersed (but undocumented) quotes, Armstrong quips: “Me and music got married at the home.” Released at 14, he apprentices with Oliver, plays in his bands, and follows him to Chicago and beyond. Ransome’s vivid, saturated paintings depict cityscapes and riverboats, framing Armstrong in windows and rectangular insets, and capturing the music’s joy in paradegoers’ faces. A nuanced author’s note features a detail about Louis’ uncorrected embouchure, and resources include eight well-annotated websites for multimedia study.
Upbeat and celebratory—like Pops himself. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3428-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
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