by Laura Gallego Garcia & translated by Dan Bellm ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2005
Set in the deserts of Arabia, before Islam, this wonderful, fantastical fairy tale, translated from Spanish, is at once fresh and familiar. The story begins when Prince Walid ibn Hujr desires to be a famous poet. For three years in a row, however, the same humble carpet weaver, Hammad ibn al-Haddad, wins the palace-sponsored contest, a humiliation that transforms the well-liked, once-noble prince into an embittered, jealous-hearted shadow of his former self. In retaliation, the prince burdens the weaver with an impossible task: to weave a carpet that contains all of human history, past, present and future. To his astonishment, the weaver does so, but the arduous work blinds and ultimately kills the man. When the miraculous carpet is stolen, the prince, now the king, takes to the desert to find it, and spends the rest of his life trying to make amends for his loathsome actions. This beautifully symmetrical tale of the possibility of redemption, of fate vs. free will, of the necessity of heart in art, will enthrall readers young and old. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-439-58556-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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More by Laura Gallego Garcia
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by Laura Gallego Garcia & illustrated by Margaret Sayers Peden
by Kat Falls ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2010
The worldbuilding of countless eco-thrillers serves here as the setting for a classic Western. A Western, that is, with plankton instead of cows, harpoons instead of six-shooters and submarines instead of covered wagons. Ty lives below the ocean, in a future in which water levels have risen and Topsiders live cramped together in unbearable conditions. Undersea, any brave settler can stake a claim and build a huge homestead. Ty was born down here, and he loves it. When he encounters freckle-faced Topsider orphan Gemma, he revels in showing her his world, from inflatable houses shaped like jellyfish to beautiful schools of swordfish. If only they weren’t in danger from the villainous Seablite gang that keeps attacking homesteads! This caper features a slew of Western standards—the crabby old doctor (“Doc”), the saloon filled with bandanna-clad thugs, the posse of furious citizens—and a few plot twists keep the tension high. A thrilling conversion of the classics to one of our newer frontiers. (Science fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-17814-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
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by Yan Nascimbene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999
A child’s feelings of loneliness and isolation are eventually replaced with a longing for adventure in a mysterious book from Nascimbene (A Day in September, 1995, not reviewed). Sent to a boarding school in the Swiss Alps for the summer while her parents are vacationing, L£cia, homesick for S—o Paulo and family, remains detached from all activities until the day she hears distant hammering emanating from a local barn. Intrigued, L£cia discovers a kind farmer named Aldo behind the sound; he is keeping a secret from the outside world. Befriending the girl after she pours out her heart to him, Aldo decides to show her the large sailboat he has been building. L£cia, who renames all the wildflowers she finds according to her wishes, finds a wildflower she calls Ocean Deep and sends it to her parents, foreshadowing the dream she is to have later aboard Aldo’s boat; in this dream she sails close enough to her shipbound parents to wave at them. The beautifully conceived illustrations have a range of appearances, from the look of cut-paper silhouettes whose spaces have been washed in watercolor, to landscapes and seascapes with perspectives and of a simplicity of line associated with Japanese art. The typeface, though attractive, is a small size that makes this better for read-aloud sessions than reading alone; the story, long for a picture book, but deeply felt, is ripe for the interpretation of children. (Picture book. 7-11)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-56846-161-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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More by Janet Wyman Coleman
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by Janet Wyman Coleman ; illustrated by Yan Nascimbene
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by Ying Chang Compestine & illustrated by Yan Nascimbene
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by Robert Quackenbush & illustrated by Yan Nascimbene
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