From James Berry’s grand “Lion,” “staring with fearless look / Wild beast outdoing all,” to Kit Wright’s annoyed hens, who dismiss the proud cock as “just a feathered fathead / With a very silly walk!” the 13 new, short poems here echo the general tone of each section in Saint-Saëns’s ever-popular work—though to call them “inspired” is, with some notable exceptions, pushing it. Each poem is presented in a different typeface, and Kitamura gives each spread a different look, passing, for instance, from thick jangles of piano keys (“Pianists”) to a bony orchestra of “Fossils,” then on to an elegant “Swan” gliding on a cool blue pond. Though some animals, such as Gillian Clarke’s “Cuckoo,” who “grows fat on murder, and in a stolen house / sings her two notes in an angel’s voice,” will linger with readers, in general the writing is so prosaic that most of the menagerie will pass without eliciting much response. A limp effort, particularly next to John Lithgow’s exuberant interpretation, illustrated by Boris Kulikov (2004). (CD) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7636-2960-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2006
From Johnston (An Old Shell, 1999, etc.), poetic phrases that follow a ghostly barn owl through days and nights, suns and moons. Barn owls have been nesting and roosting, hunting and hatching in the barn and its surroundings for as long as the barn has housed spiders, as long as the wheat fields have housed mice, “a hundred years at least.” The repetition of alliterative words and the hushed hues of the watercolors evoke the soundless, timeless realm of the night owl through a series of spectral scenes. Short, staccato strings of verbs describe the age-old actions and cycles of barn owls, who forever “grow up/and sleep/and wake/and blink/and hunt for mice.” Honey-colored, diffused light glows in contrast to the star-filled night scenes of barn owls blinking awake. A glimpse into the hidden campestral world of the elusive barn owl. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-981-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
The gastronomical oddity of eating winged and many-legged creatures is fleetingly examined in a superficial text that looks at animals and people who eat insects. Bugs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner are gobbled up by a shrew, an aardvark, a bear, a gecko, and others. The rhyme scheme limits the information presented; specificity about the types of insects eaten is sacrificed for the sake of making the rhyme flow, e.g., a mouse, a trout, a praying mantis, a nuthatch, and a bat are repeatedly said to eat “bugs” or “insects” in general, rather than naming the mayflies, moths, or grubs they enjoy. An author’s note explains her choice of the word bugs for all crawly things; an addendum takes care of other particulars lacking in the text. Long’s exacting pen-and-ink style lends a naturalistic perfection to this visual playground of the insect world, enhancing this glimpse of vital link in the food chain. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-88106-271-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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