The Dillons illustrate the familiar verses of Ecclesiastes in the King James version, one spread for every double-edged phrase, e.g., “a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” They have taken inspiration for these gouache, acrylic, watercolor, and ink paintings the great art of the world; the opening image is based on the Book of Kells; among other styles used are Japanese ukiyo-e, Greek red-and-black pottery, kiva painting, medieval woodcuts, Russian icons, and Thai shadow plays. Every one is executed with meticulous precision and great feeling; all are annotated at the end. This is a gift book in the best sense, to be read often; if children don’t respond immediately to its overall formality, they will surely find pages to pore over herein. (Picture book. 9+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-590-47887-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hannah remains too superficial to ever be engaging.
Back for a third outing is 14-year-old Hannah, the breezy white star of her own local television show, this time bound for a treasure hunt that will be filmed for a new on-air project.
The good news is that the treasure hunt will be conducted from the lavish decks of Piper’s father’s yacht. The bad news is myriad: pretty-girl Piper is conniving, competitive, and deceitful; her father, a study in hyperbole, is remarkably controlling and nasty; Hannah’s wished-for love interest is along but seems focused on Piper; and Hannah is very prone to seasickness. Piper does whatever she can to undermine the mostly easygoing Hannah, right up to giving her a powerful sedative tablet that she represents as a seasickness remedy. Hannah is just trying to do a good job while feeling daunted by Piper’s many supposed talents. Stock, white-by-default characters are flat and predictable. Although Piper’s over-the-top machinations and the undersea treasure hunt make waves, Hannah’s blandly effervescent voice contributes little. When Piper publicly owns up to the error of her ways at the conclusion then swiftly finds common ground with her helicopter dad, it presents a somewhat unconvincing (and a bit preachy) feel-good ending. The cover art has little to do with the storyline, but it offers the most humorous aspect of this average tale.
Hannah remains too superficial to ever be engaging. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4597-3160-8
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful and entertaining story of how we got from trading a pig for a sack of rye to “Chapter Fifteen: In which we...
A snappy course in the evolution of exchange.
Jenkins is thorough but not so thorough as to make the dismal science dismal to his readers. He offers lively explanations for barter, then refinements on the bartering system and the moment when parties agreed upon a medium of exchange: wampum, gemstones—and gold, in all its luster, its malleability, its exquisiteness. From there, he takes readers to weights and measures; banks, black markets and usury; interest earned and interest paid; inflation and deflation; crashes and runs on banks. Maybe because there has been enough already, Jenkins steers clear of loan-sharking and what happens when you can’t pay your debt. It’s all related in a simple, colloquial style that will keep readers engaged: “Wouldn’t it be handy if you could swap your goat for something easy to keep and carry around and that everybody wanted?” The text is urged along by the fine illustrations of Kitamura, which sometimes hint at the old Johnny Hart comic strip “B.C.,” with its touch of subversive humor. Jenkins closes with a caution: “[T]here’s a danger that you start believing that buying and selling are the only important things in life”—how many economics textbooks include that?
A thoughtful and entertaining story of how we got from trading a pig for a sack of rye to “Chapter Fifteen: In which we discover how easy it is for money to disappear.” (author’s note, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6763-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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