bookshelf

THE ALMOND ORCHARD

Name: THE ALMOND ORCHARD
Author: Laura Jane Coats
ISBN: 0-02-719041-2

by Laura Jane Coats & illustrated by Laura Jane Coats ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 1991

bookshelf

Narrating in her grandmother's voice, Coats describes raising almonds in California at the turn of the century, when harvesting was handwork done by the family with some neighbors' help and the crop was dried in the sun; the year's cycle is completed with winter pruning and the sweet spring bloom. The narrative continues to the present, with expanded acreage and modern equipment. Both Coats's simple text and her clear, elegantly drawn illustrations are full of authentic detail—and such delights as the lovely orchard shining with blossoms. An exceptionally appealing piece of social history; Coats's most substantial contribution so far. (Picture book. 6-10)*justify no*

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1991

ISBN: 0-02-719041-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
ALPHABET GARDEN
by Laura Jane Coats & illustrated by Laura Jane Coats

INCREDIBLE JOBS YOU'VE (PROBABLY) NEVER HEARD OF

bookshelf

INCREDIBLE JOBS YOU'VE (PROBABLY) NEVER HEARD OF

by Natalie Labarre ; illustrated by Natalie Labarre ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

Chicken sexer? Breath odor evaluator? Cryptozoologist? Island caretaker? The choices dazzle! (Informational picture book....

bookshelf

From funeral clown to cheese sculptor, a tally of atypical trades.

This free-wheeling survey, framed as a visit to “The Great Hall of Jobs,” is designed to shake readers loose from simplistic notions of the world of work. Labarre opens with a generic sculpture gallery of, as she puts it, “The Classics”—doctor, dancer, farmer, athlete, chef, and the like—but quickly moves on, arranging busy cartoon figures by the dozen in kaleidoscopic arrays, with pithy captions describing each occupation. As changes of pace she also tucks in occasional challenges to match select workers (Las Vegas wedding minister, “ethical” hacker, motion-capture actor) with their distinctive tools or outfits. The actual chances of becoming, say, the queen’s warden of the swans or a professional mattress jumper, not to mention the nitty-gritty of physical or academic qualifications, income levels, and career paths, are left largely unspecified…but along with noting that new jobs are being invented all the time (as, in the illustration, museum workers wheel in a “vlogger” statue), the author closes with the perennial insight that it’s essential to love what you do and the millennial one that there’s nothing wrong with repeatedly switching horses midstream. The many adult figures and the gaggle of children (one in a wheelchair) visiting the “Hall” are diverse of feature, sex, and skin color.

Chicken sexer? Breath odor evaluator? Cryptozoologist? Island caretaker? The choices dazzle! (Informational picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: April 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-5362-1219-8

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Nosy Crow

Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

bookshelf

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE

by Bill Martin & Michael Sampson & illustrated by Chris Raschka ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2002

bookshelf

This attempt to explain the Pledge’s meaning to younger children is at least as simplistic as it is enlightening. Using a combination of torn paper and simple, fluidly brushed strokes, Raschka (Be Boy Buzz, p. 1310, etc.) supplies a brightly colored backdrop of stylized children and adults, against which the Pledge’s words, generally one by one, are printed in large type and glossed in smaller: “God. Many people believe that a democracy is how God thinks—every single person is important.” Martin and Sampson (Tricks or Treat?, below, etc.) fill in bits of the historical background, mentioning Frances Bellamy, the Pledge’s original composer, but not that his version was very different from the present one, and closing with a dizzying recapitulation: “The flag stands for our history, our inventions, our music, sports, literature, faith . . . ” Children curious about the meaning of what so many of them are compelled to promise every morning in school will get less lyrical, but more factual, commentary from June Swanson’s I Pledge Allegiance (1990). (Picture book. 6-8)