A gorgeous book for a globalized world.
Right in time for the Year of the Ox comes a tale about a little boy and his paper horse, penned and illustrated by the Brothers Xiong, China’s modern-day answer to the Brothers Grimm.
The Chinese author/illustrator Xiong brothers, along with their English author Shen, have pulled off a remarkable feat. With intoxicating illustrations that capture the haunting depths of Maurice Sendak’s work, they bring to life a story of a child waiting for his parents to fetch him from his grandmother’s house–in thrillingly relevant and universally connected ways. Shen cites Robert Frost as an influence on the writing, bringing a Western touch to the tale. It centers on a young boy whose grandma creates a red-paper horse to keep him company–it later leads the dreaming child to his parents, who are stuck in a snowstorm. The English author notes that the object references not only the ancient Chinese art of paper-cutting (used to ring in the New Year) and red as a color of good luck, but also the fallout from the global economy. In rural China, parents must leave children in the care of relatives while they travel to the big cities seeking work, lending reunions during the New Year and other too-infrequent holidays the same sense of poignancy that it holds for immigrant children and parents in the United States. While this could be an emotionally overwhelming topic for a children’s book, the creators approach it with sensitivity and grace. The illustrations conjure up magical worlds from childhood fears, but show that, as the last line reminds, “dreams do come true.” Even those too little to understand the difference between East and West, rich and poor, will recognize an enthralling story when they see it.
A gorgeous book for a globalized world.Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-6060-3003-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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