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FOR A GIRL BECOMING

Name: FOR A GIRL BECOMING
Author: Joy Harjo
ISBN: 978-0-8165-2797-7

by Joy Harjo & illustrated by Mercedes McDonald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2009

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Mvskoke/Creek poet Harjo celebrates the birth of a baby girl and offers guidance for a good life. Images spring from inspirations both natural—“Clouds peered over the mountains / in response to the singing of medicine plants”—and mechanical—“From your mother’s house we brought poetry, music … and a yard filled with junked cars and the gift of knowing how to make them run.” Advice ranges from the ethereal—“When you walk, remember the source of the gift of all walking”—to the practical—“Clean your room.” McDonald’s jewel-toned paintings (worked on wood panel in watercolor and pastel) swirl with color and play with imagery, effectively matching the poem’s tone but often only incompletely illustrating it: Framed in the outline of a crested bird, a sad young woman gazes out, with the silhouettes of branches and raindrops superimposed against a city at night; the text reads, in part, “There are treacherous places along the way, but you can come to us.” Visually and verbally lovely, if resolutely abstract—a picture book for teens, not young children. (Picture book. 12 & up)

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Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-8165-2797-7

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Univ. of Arizona

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
FAIRY TRAILS
by Susan Middleton Elya & illustrated by Mercedes McDonald

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FUDGE-A-MANIA

by Judy Blume ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1990

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A well-loved author brings together, on a Maine vacation, characters from two of her books. Peter's parents have assured him that though Sheila ("The Great") Tubman and her family will be nearby, they'll have their own house; but instead, they find a shared arrangement in which the two families become thoroughly intertwined—which suits everyone but the curmudgeonly Peter. Irrepressible little brother Fudge, now five, is planning to marry Sheila, who agrees to babysit with Peter's toddler sister; there's a romance between the grandparents in the two families; and the wholesome good fun, including a neighborhood baseball game featuring an aging celebrity player, seems more important than Sheila and Peter's halfhearted vendetta. The story's a bit tame (no controversies here), but often amusingly true to life and with enough comic episodes to satisfy fans.