This woolly-headed fable, trying to re-create the qualities of Native-American myth, tells of a visionary young Indian who restores honey to his tribe. He sees how the bears in the woods destroy beehives and, borrowing knowledge from a queen bee, he turns himself into a bear, dances his bear brothers into a deep sleep, then teaches his people how to take honey from the bees in a more respectful and environmentally correct way. And when the bears wake up, he calms them by dancing again. Lasky's (Days of the Dead, p. 1421, etc.) storytelling wanders and the plot doesn't make a bit of sense, either on a literal or a metaphorical level; the self-consciously lyrical language is downright tedious. Moser has contributed meticulous mood-setting pencil drawings in which you can see every hair of the bears' fur, but they're too soft-edged and subtle to really spark kids' imaginations. This book pushes all the trendy buttons, but it's too precious. Basically a real yawn. (Fiction/Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-15-219168-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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IN THE NEWS
A gentle story of the Sun's healing of marital discord by a gift of ripe strawberries that magically grow at the feet of an angry woman as she flees her husband's harsh words, thus halting her departure long enough for him to catch up and make amends. Thereafter, the story concludes, whenever the Cherokee eat strawberries, they are reminded to be kind to one another. Quietly luminous watercolors capture details of dress, dwelling, implements, flora, and fauna against an open landscape of rolling hills. Small touches dramatize the story's moods: a bouquet of brown-eyed Susans flung to the ground in anger; an empty nest in a pine tree as the woman disappears behind the western hills; the glimmer of a single firefly as man and wife are reconciled. Complete harmony of text and pictures: altogether lovely. (Folklore/Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-8037-1331-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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