Remarkable illustrations, brief retellings and clear morals do not quite make a satisfying collection.
Fourteen animal tales are presented in the same format as Quentin Blake’s Magical Tales (2012), with many of the same strengths and weaknesses.
These very brief tales do not all have happy or resolved endings, and no sources are given. Some clues to context and locale come in the stories, but readers may need to search elsewhere for the origins of others. “The Singing Tortoise” is a West African tale and “The Turkey Girl,” a Zuni Cinderella with an unhappy ending. (Some of these tales were previously collected in The Singing Tortoise, 1993.) Blake’s squiggly and expressive pictures are the selling point, describing with ragged brio the hippos and the coyotes, the cobras and the ravens, the princesses and shepherds. The coyote who cannot remember the song the locust has taught him is a jagged mass of frustrated lines and angles. “The Impudent Bird” of that title, with his borrowed colors and feathers, contrasts nicely with the befuddled king and hardworking tailor, both of whom the bird hoodwinks. One of the few stories that is both satisfying and happy is the Italian “Monkey Palace,” wherein twin princes both end up with a kingdom to rule as a consequence of acts of kindness and honor.
Remarkable illustrations, brief retellings and clear morals do not quite make a satisfying collection. (Folk tales. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84365-195-6
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Pavilion/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Most children will agree the book is “smafunderful (smart + fun + wonderful).” (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)
In this entertaining chapter book, the first in a series, readers meet kind Sir Sidney and the gentle performers and hands in his circus. But Sir Sidney is tired and leaves the circus under the management of new-hire Barnabas Brambles for a week.
That Sir Sidney is beloved by all is quickly established, presenting a sharp contrast to the bully Brambles. The scoundrel immediately comes up with a “to do” list that includes selling the animals and eliminating the mice Bert and Gert. (Gert is almost more distressed by Brambles’ ill-fitting suit and vows to tailor it.) Revealed almost entirely through dialogue, the put-upon animals’ solidarity is endearing. The story, like the circus train now driven by the Famous Flying Banana Brothers, takes absurd loops and turns. The art is fully integrated, illustrating the action and supplementing the text with speech bubbles, facsimile letters and posters, Brambles’ profit-and-loss notes, examples of Gert’s invented vocabulary and more. Brambles’ plans go awry, of course, and he gets his comeuppance. With Bert and Gert acting as his conscience, along with a suit from Gert that finally fits and a dose of forgiveness, Brambles makes a turnaround. Sensitive children may doubt Sir Sidney’s wisdom in leaving his animals with an unscrupulous man, and the closing message is a tad didactic, but that doesn’t blunt the fun too much.
Most children will agree the book is “smafunderful (smart + fun + wonderful).” (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61620-244-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Nine-year-old Hank Wolowitz fears the prospect of fourth grade at New York’s PS 166 without friends—his best friend Alexander just moved away (against his will). Sasha Chin from downstairs doesn’t really count as a friend, because she has three good girl friends she hangs out with half the time. When Hank reaches for a Lego piece under the sink of his family’s ice-cream shop, Big Round Pumpkin, and feels fur where it shouldn’t be and days later sees a waffle cone disappear bite by bite, he knows something is fishy. After Rootbeer, the neighbor’s dog, goes bananas barking at nothing in the hallway, Hank discovers he has accidentally saved an invisible, furry Bandapat named Inkling. Inkling, who loves squash and can be a stranger to the truth, feels he owes Hank a debt and must stick around until he can save Hank’s life. An opportunity for that just might arise, since bully Bruno Gillicut has decided that Hank annoys him and must pay by forking over his dessert at lunch every day. Jenkins’ possible series starter (given the hints at the close) is a gently humorous and nicely realistic (with the obvious exception of the invisible Peruvian Bandapat) tale about coping with the loss of a lifelong best friend. (The book will feature Bliss’ signature black-and-white illustrations, but no art was available at the time of review.) Anyone who who has ever had an imaginary friend will appreciate sassy Inkling (who’s invisible—not imaginary). (Fantasy. 7-10)
Pub Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-180220-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
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