Those appreciative of Beethoven’s work can now commiserate with the difficulties of owning five legless pianos and having to move in and out of 39 apartments all because of rude neighbors who couldn’t tell a good note from a toneless bang. From this proven fact, Winter has crafted an entertaining tale that is less biography than fascinating sidebar. Children with no knowledge of Beethoven will laugh at the increasingly elaborate and far-fetched schemes to move his pianos, while perhaps gaining a rudimentary knowledge of physics. There’s also a tongue-in-cheek observance of the need to separate fact from fiction while examining the historical record. Do those water stains really “reveal that he then dumped another bowl of water on his head?” Blitt’s watercolors deftly capture Beethoven-era Vienna and his increasing frenzy brought on by deafness. Through it all, Beethoven looms larger than life, as well he should. A previously missing manuscript provides elegant endpapers. A handsome and engaging tale. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83602-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
A bit treacly but wistful and charming.
A lonely baseball superstar finds a new friend and rethinks his priorities.
He’s talented, popular and very rich, but something is missing that he just can’t name. On a visit to the zoo, he is fascinated by a walrus’ antics. He decides to buy it, but he meets with great resistance from the worried zookeepers. He is so determined to demonstrate his ability to care for the walrus that he completely reconfigures his huge backyard with all the accouterments a walrus could possibly need. He’s ecstatic when the zoo authorities finally agree to let the walrus go. He grooms the walrus, reads him stories and even plays catch. He is so happy that he quits baseball, but eventually he runs out of money and the walrus must go. Of course there’s a happy ending, and the two friends are reunited. It’s not really a baseball story, for the unnamed hero could just as well be a rock star or actor or business mogul. The important part is that he gives it all up for friendship and companionship. Loory builds the tale nicely with sympathetic portrayals of the hero’s loneliness and the walrus’ endearing traits. Young readers will find it all sweetly believable. Latimer’s computer-enhanced cartoons carefully follow the text and add an extra touch to the characters’ emotions. The denouement could come straight out of Field of Dreams, if that film were set in a zoo.
A bit treacly but wistful and charming. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3951-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
At best an incomplete discussion starter, without much political or psychological depth.
A pointed fable on the hazards of competition and the benefits of cooperation.
Published in Europe five years ago but not previously available here, the episode is played out by bunnies who gambol fetchingly through grassy fields in Kaufmann’s stippled watercolors. Binny, Benny, Bernie, Bonnie and Buddy live together, play together and share the food and fun they find—until, that is, a big stranger bunny named Hoppelpopp arrives and asks which one is the “best bunny.” When the others answer that they’re all the same, he sets up a race and other contests so that soon, all but the smallest, Buddy, are aggressively declaring themselves the fastest, strongest, smartest or bravest. When, however, Buddy draws his burrow mates back together to chase off a badger, they see the error of their ways—and Hoppelpopp, ignored, anticlimactically hops away. For all the worthy values on display here, readers will likely be left hanging by the abrupt ending; the big bunny’s evident lack of motive or agenda render him superfluous to the story and irrelevant to its theme.
At best an incomplete discussion starter, without much political or psychological depth. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3287-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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