A neat slice of Cameroonian life. Terrible two-year-old Toto can't get enough to eat and can't stay out of trouble. When his grandmother, Big Mami, takes him to market, Toto's business as usual includes knocking over a pile of puffpuffs to get the choicest one from the bottom of the heap, tumbling into a vat of palm oil, and scarfing an entire plate of koki. ``Oh, no, Toto!'' is the refrain, but Big Mami knows that he is ``too little to know any better,'' and can't get mad at the little bundle. Ushered home by his exhausted grandmother, Toto tucks into a pot of egussi soup and inevitably falls asleep. Tchana and Pami breathe life into the West African market scene, introducing readers to some of the local foodstuffs (a glossary of terms is included, along with a recipe for soup) and sprinkle the text with patois: ``Mami Peter! How now?'' The strong oil paintings convey warmth, while Bootman shows a real knack for exaggerated gestures, e.g., Big Mami slapping her forehead at Toto's shenanigans, and even better, Toto's face—forlorn and covetous- -as he passes a bowl of vegetables on his way to the bath. A title that teaches through laughter and affection. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-46585-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1997
The tales of Wilhelm Hauff (18021827)—almost unknown in the U.S.—belong on every child's shelf. Shepard retells ``The Caliph Stork,'' a stylized imitation of the Arabian Nights that has become a part of Middle Eastern folklore. A merchant sells the Calif[sic] of Baghdad a magic snuffbox, which contains a powder that transforms him and his vizier into storks. But the magic word that is to turn them back into humans has no effect, and they find themselves trapped in their new forms. Wandering through the woods, the two storks meet a woodpecker who tells them that she is a princess put under the spell by a sorcerer. When they follow her to the sorcerer's hide-out, they discover that he is none other than the merchant who sold them the snuffbox. They overhear him bragging about his trick, whereupon he reveals the real magic word that will transform them. The Gothic overtones of Hauff's KunstmÑrchen have been removed in Shepard's simplified version (for example, in the original, the storks more tragically forget the magic word), but the story still works. In his first work, Dianov, with rich, ornately three- dimensional watercolors, displays his sensitivity to the oriental charms of the tale, paying as much attention to the details of costume and architecture as to the characters themselves. Everything has a cartoon-like plasticity, or unrealness; his colorful pictures, full of beards, turbans, and minarets, look as if they were made out of candy. (Picture book/folklore. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 24, 1995
ISBN: 0-395-65377-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
A tale about Chelm—a town celebrated in Jewish folklore for the legendary idiocy of its inhabitants. Zaynul, a poor teacher, and Zeitel, his wife, decide to save money to buy the ingredients for apple strudel—each agrees to deposit a zloty a week into a trunk. But when after a few months they open the trunk, it turns out (in a kind of inversion of O. Henry's ``The Gift of the Magi'') that neither of them has put in any money, each counting on the other's contributions. They start arguing and fall into the trunk. The lid shuts, the trunk rolls out of their house, and, in the climactic scene of the story, down the hill—crashing through everything, with a crowd following—into the middle of the marketplace, where it comes to a stop. After the incident, the Wise Men of Chelm pass a law regarding teachers, trunks, and apple strudel. The narration and dialogue have many colorful details—some funnier than others. On the whole, the story is written in such a way that, were it read out loud, an Eastern European accent would not sound inappropriate. The best thing about this book are Lisker's oils (one per page of text). Recalling Chagall's painting of shtetl life, they combine brightness and softness and a floating perspective, and depict a world of little houses, bald men with big beards, women with kerchiefs, cows and goats, chickens and dogs. These pictures are suffused with loving warmth; it's impossible not to linger over them. A uniquely funny book. (Picture book/folklore. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-06879-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
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