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I SEE THE MOON AND THE MOON SEES ME

London (Where's Home?, p. 858, etc.) has charmingly adapted a nursery favorite. Using the rhyme scheme of the original, London created a series of appealing vignettes: ``I see the flowers/and the flowers see me./Hello flowers,/are you smiling for me?'' Fiore's art is the real star here, vivid, evocative, and well painted. Taking the verses as a starting point for his paintings, and with pleasing circularity, Fiore follows a young boy with a bright red backpack and equally red kite through a day brimming with activity in a wide variety of settings: a stroll along a quiet morning street, kite-flying on a windy shore, stepping across rocks in a clear brook, hiking through majestic gold-orange mountains, soaring on a swing under a deep green sheltering tree, biking through fields bright with sunflowers, solitary canoeing on a lake at luminous sunset, and home again at twilight. Some eagle-eyed readers will want to know where the boy—who leaves and returns home on foot—gets the bike, or why the kite vanishes for several spreads. Nevertheless, a lovely mood piece for sharing. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: March 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-670-85918-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995

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MISTER TOAD

T. Tamson Toad, whose comfortable home is pleasantly situated in a garden wall (``Though Mrs. Quimby did her share of the garden work, Mister Toad always called it his garden''), is troubled by his elderly neighbor's new cat—and by a queen bee who insists on moving in with her ``entourage.'' Resourcefully, he welcomes the bees and lets them bear the brunt of the cat's next visit—so that both leave him alone thereafter. Told with in economical style and whimsical turns of phrase recalling Beatrix Potter's stories, this 8-inch-square book has cleanly designed illustrations that present its hero's tidy home with loving care; Mister Toad himself, alert and debonair, might be a neighbor of Leslie Brooke's toad in A Roundabout Turn (1939). Charming. (Young reader/Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1992

ISBN: 0-02-792527-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992

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SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

A good-natured rant against materialism. When Great-aunt Elsie Applebaum drops out of society, she leaves her possessions to a swarm of greedy relatives. No one is satisfied with any part of the legacy, until ``little Tilda-next-door'' gets hold of it. From broad hints dropped in the first few pages, readers will know that Tilda is the only one who understands Elsie and won't be surprised when she fashions the items into a magic traveling machine. Following a series of adventures, Tilda finds her own place in the sun, right next to Great-aunt Elsie. Whitcher (Real Mummies Don't Bleed, 1993, etc.) has poetic sensibility—``The guitar strings thrummed from the rush of flying,'' ``Fingers of fog reached and clung''—that she never overuses. At first the rather staid, even ordinary illustrations seem at odds with the text's rebellious message; soon they give rise to some grand images, especially in the fantastic latter-half of the book. A reunion of the creators of Moonfall (1993, not reviewed), this book builds to a satisfying close. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1995

ISBN: 0-374-37138-5

Page Count: 28

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995

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