Leading an artistic workshop in China, two brothers, an illustrator and a storyteller have worked with their co-artists and their translator to create books to bring Chinese folklore and arts to English-speaking countries. More sophisticated than their earlier government-sponsored didactic counterparts from the 1960s and ’70s, these books (see also The Dragon Tribe, 2009) have an original graphic look that is sometimes at odds with their easy texts. In this minor story, the brave Clay General is a small ceramic toy who avoids the hot kiln where he is made, only to turn back into a lump of formless clay when water accidentally touches him in a home where his child-owner is never seen. The mixed-media illustrations with photographic elements are striking, but at times unclear, and they do not always support the General’s blustery narration. At the end of each book, the story appears in Chinese simplified characters and in transliteration with small copies of the illustrations alongside the appropriate text. In future volumes, the Chinese should be placed on the relevant pages to facilitate bilingual use. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-60603-002-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
This retelling of an old English ghost story is designated Level 2 in this publisher's Easy-to-Read series (the books at this level have so few words that they look more like small picture books than easy readers). Less than 300 words long, with plenty of repetition and lots of visual cues, it is accessible to beginning readers. In most versions, the voice that repeatedly demands ``Give me my bone!'' emanates from the bedroom cupboard where the woman has placed a bone that she took from a grave, and ghostly shapes are sometimes pictured lurking there; here, the source of the voice is not pinpointed, and in the end, the frightened woman throws the bone out the window. It's a logical arrangement, but certainly less spooky. The pen-and-ink-and-watercolor illustrations show all the appropriate teeny-tiny accoutrements of the tale. Jane O'Connor's easy version of this story (1986) is a bit longer, has larger type, and slightly less challenging vocabulary. For readers able and willing, try Paul Galdone's charmingly scary edition (1984). (Picture book/folklore. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-86048-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
These 39 bouncy rhymes require a little practice before reading aloud; the rhythms are tricky, but irresistible. Each author contributes about half the pieces here, which includes a sprinkling of traditional ditties (e.g., ``London Bridge''), poems about people (``Granny,'' ``Doctor Kill,'' ``De Bottleman,'' ``Queen Foot-She-Put''), games (``Skipping Rope Spell'' is printed in spirals), animals (in the title entry, a mouse disavows any knowledge of clocks), and even an eco-rap (``Baby-K Rap Rhyme''). Young children hearing these may just get up to dance. The scratchboard illustrations are as bright and saucy as the verse. These are less literary, more dependent on dialect, and for younger audiences than Ashley Bryan's Sing to the Sun (1992), Lynn Joseph's Coconut Kind of Day (1990), or Monica Gunning's Not a Copper Penny in Me House (1993). It's hard to locate favorites without an index or table of contents, but the endpapers place the poems perfectly with a colorful map of the Caribbean. (Picture book/poetry. 4-7)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56402-156-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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