Inspired by an ancient tale (probably “The Story of the Green Jewel,” although the author does not name it), and subtitled “The Oldest Story in the World” (which other sources identify as Gilgamesh), this is the story of Muti, “daughter of Egypt,” who from birth has worn the precious turquoise-and-carnelian necklace crafted by her loving father. When, at age 13, this shapely, Cleopatra-kohled beauty goes “to work for King Snefru, mighty Pharaoh of all Egypt,” the chiseled young ruler, impressed by her grace and strength (laundering whilst dressed and bejeweled to the nines), insists that she head an all-girl rowing crew. This leads to the loss of her necklace, her death-defying refusal to continue to power the Pharaoh’s boat and the Royal magician’s Moses-like parting of the waters of the lake to allow Muti to retrieve her treasure. Evocative pretend-papyrus papers and glowing, detailed watercolor-and-gouache pictures of the comely Pharaoh, his serving girls in richly adorned, diaphanous dresses and Egyptian icons galore give a fairy-tale feel to this immoderately romantic telling. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: June 26, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-53583-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2006
Celebrated collaborators deliver another thoughtful delight, revealing how “making marks” links us across time and space.
The light-skinned, redheaded narrator journeys alone as flight attendants supply snacks to diverse, interspecies passengers. The kid muses, “Sometimes they ask me, ‘Why are you always going to the farthest planet?’ ”The response comes after the traveler hurtles through the solar system, lands, and levitates up to the platform where a welcoming grandmother waits: “Because it’s worth it / to cross one universe / to explore another.” Indeed, child and grandmother enter an egg-shaped, clear-domed orb and fly over a teeming savanna and a towering waterfall before disembarking, donning headlamps, and entering a cave. Inside, the pair marvel at a human handprint and ancient paintings of animals including horses, bison, and horned rhinoceroses. Yockteng’s skilled, vigorously shaded pictures suggest references to images found in Lascaux and Chauvet Cave in France. As the holiday winds down, grandmother gives the protagonist some colored pencils that had belonged to grandfather generations back. (She appears to chuckle over a nude portrait of her younger self.) The pencils “were good for making marks on paper. She gave me that too.” The child draws during the return trip, documenting the visit and sights along the journey home. “Because what I could see was infinity.” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 85% of actual size.)
Celebrated collaborators deliver another thoughtful delight, revealing how “making marks” links us across time and space. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77306-172-6
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A child’s-eye view of the day Rosa Parks would not give up her seat. On Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., a boy and his mom sit at the back of the bus, and he amuses himself by rolling his tiger’s-eye marble down the bus aisle. “Mrs. Parks from the tailor shop” rolls it back to him. Soon the bus is packed, but it does not move. The boy, acutely sensitive to the tone of his mother’s and the driver’s voices, wonders what is happening, but he sees that, like his mama, Parks has her “strong chin.” She’s taken away, the bus goes home and the boy holds his brown-and-golden marble to the light, thinking he does not have to hide it anymore. The language is rhythmic and inflected with dropped gs, with slightly overdone description, but clearly explains to very young children Parks’s refusal to give up her seat at the front of the bus to a white man. Cooper uses his “subtractive method” on oil color, in which illustrations are rubbed out or lightened, making the pictures glow with burnished grace. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-25091-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2009
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