Living on a remote island in the marshes of coastal Georgia, Jonas is looking forward to the big storytelling, a gathering of all the islanders. But with his beloved grandfather recently dead and the rest of the men of his family working on the mainland, it falls to Jonas to represent the family by telling a story. As the event approaches, Jonas feels a mixture of dread and longing, hoping he'll be able to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. Turning the pages of this book is like entering another world, one of salt marshes, shrimp nets, and spirits. The sense of place is palpable; just as vivid is the the feel of the heat, the smell of the gumbo. Along the way readers get a few tales, tantalizing snatches of the Gullah language, and a snapshot of another way of life. A simple story that somehow seems to fill the senses. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: June 30, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-024877-7
Page Count: 85
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1996
A charming, true story about the encounter between the boy who would become chancellor at the University of California at Riverside and a librarian in Iowa. Tom†s Rivera, child of migrant laborers, picks crops in Iowa in the summer and Texas in the winter, traveling from place to place in a worn old car. When he is not helping in the fields, Tom†s likes to hear Papa Grande's stories, which he knows by heart. Papa Grande sends him to the library downtown for new stories, but Tom†s finds the building intimidating. The librarian welcomes him, inviting him in for a cool drink of water and a book. Tom†s reads until the library closes, and leaves with books checked out on the librarian's own card. For the rest of the summer, he shares books and stories with his family, and teaches the librarian some Spanish. At the end of the season, there are big hugs and a gift exchange: sweet bread from Tom†s's mother and a shiny new book from the librarianto keep. Col¢n's dreamy illustrations capture the brief friendship and its life-altering effects in soft earth tones, using round sculptured shapes that often depict the boy right in the middle of whatever story realm he's entered. (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-679-80401-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1997
A country boy forced to stay with smothering city relatives finds some surprising allies in this imaginative, if sketchy, reminiscence. An old man finds a bundle of clothes in his aunt’s now-empty house, and recalls a summer he spent there 65 years ago. Instead of enjoying his beloved swamp, Binky finds himself with a new haircut and itchy new clothes, doing arithmetic problems at the behest of his accountant uncle, and playing cards with an enforced new “friend” who cheats. But loneliness changes to glee when he’s greeted one night by the banjo player on a box of matches and other figures from labels on household products, all of whom come to life. Better yet, Binky becomes a whiz at math and rummy, thanks to his diminutive new allies. Depicting figures with typically lapidary precision, Egielski sets Binky’s wide-eyed face like a huge moon over a coterie of tiny emblems, each rendered in a distinctive style and color. Wells leaves big narrative gaps that give the tale a herky-jerky pacing, but readers will get the gist, and may regard the labels around them with new eyes. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-670-03636-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003
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