With war an ever-present possibility and uncertain of their future, Hope and her family struggle to survive in Philadelphia in 1776. Part of the My America series and a sequel to Five Smooth Stones: Hope’s Diary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1776 (not reviewed), Hope’s latest journal entries find her family in the country having fled from the turmoil of the city. Hope’s brother has run off to fight with the Red Coats and was thrown into prison as a spy. Her father is fighting as a patriot, but he has not been home in more than a year. With a new baby to care for and worries about the state of their home, Hope’s mother returns all of them to the city where they must survive persecution from the invading British troops and the continuing threat of war. Desperate to have some normalcy in their lives, they reopen their bakery, and Hope returns to school. Soon, British soldiers overrun their home and Hope’s father returns from the front with stories and scars from the battles he has seen. Hope learns that her father has joined the Sons of Liberty, and she fears that they may not survive the coming months. Strong imagery and well-researched details make this an engrossing as well as educational selection. Readers will eagerly await the next installment. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-21039-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A book of the basic teachings of Buddha, presented through a collection of six classic, simple tales. When a monkey takes refuge from a monsoon in a cave, he happens upon a group of bickering animals—a monkey, lion, turtle, jackal, and dove. Before the fighting becomes too fierce, a small statue of Buddha begins to glow in the darkest corner. To pass the time—and to stop the fighting—wise Buddha spins enlightening stories of tolerance, endurance, sagacity, truthfulness, kindness, and clarity. Buddha recounts his past lives in many forms—from monkey to pigeon to willow tree—to his captive listeners. Such straightforward yet profound tales combine with the art and design for an example of bookmaking that is aesthetically pleasing in every way. Color-washed linoprints cleverly distinguish the stories from the black-and-white narrative frame, while an informative afterword offers brief background detail about Buddha and these six “birth stories” known as Jatakas. (Picture book/folklore. 4-7)
Pub Date: April 8, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-33548-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Readers won’t find this neighbor strange; he merely entertains an age-old desire to fly. But hark back a 120 years, when this story takes place, and one can begin to appreciate the skeptics who surround Melville Murrell, technically the creator of the first human-powered airplane two decades before the Wright brothers. To the narrator, it’s strange that “our neighbor” studies birds, makes drawings, and tries to be airborne. The title sentence becomes a bleating refrain, turning the book into a one-kick joke when Murrell’s contraption flies and the narrator is almost rendered speechless. Krudop’s paintings, with their great slabs of vibrant color, are atmospheric delights, conjuring up Murrell as the eccentric his neighbors believe him to be, and the era as one in which innovators were no more appreciated—at least till they struck it rich—than they are today. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30107-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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