Burgess has created a likable narrator in a striking setting not often represented in picture books.
What would a trip to Grandma’s house be like if you lived in Tanzania? Burgess’ (Juma’s Dhow Race, 2013, etc.) young narrator, Juma, describes the experience.
Juma and his sister, Sareeya, are eager to visit their bibi, or grandmother, over April vacation. Traveling from their home, Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, to Bibi’s small village near Seronera is such a long trip it will take “two hundred naps” before they arrive. The family piles into an old Corolla, and they make their way cross country, spotting Mount Kilimanjaro, Maasai herders, and all sorts of animals—elephants, zebra, wildebeest, gazelle, warthogs, and giraffes. The Corolla breaks down on a wildlife preserve where Juma’s mjomba (uncle) works, and Juma has a close encounter with a giraffe before his father and uncle can get the car fixed. The tone of the narrative is subdued. Juma is conversational, often chronicling his adventures without great fanfare. But that’s also part of his charm. When Mjomba tells stories about the animals he has helped save on the preserve, Juma decides, “I will be a game warden when I get big—for sure!” But after camping out atop his uncle’s Land Rover and being woken up by giraffe drool, he changes his mind: “I will never, never be a warden—that’s for sure!” The siblings’ journey conveys to young readers that Tanzania is very different from the United States, although some things, such as Juma’s father making the family take quick bathroom breaks on the long drive, may seem very familiar to young road trippers. Gugu’s illustrations beautifully depict the wildlife, especially the scene that shows Sareeya’s near run-in with an elephant. Endnotes help readers place Tanzania and its cities on the map and define the words in Ki-Swahili that pepper the text.
Burgess has created a likable narrator in a striking setting not often represented in picture books.Pub Date: July 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1939604071
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Barranca Press
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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