“See that shadow there? Could be the bunyip coming to get you! See that thing under the water, way too big to be a fish? That’s him, all right. Better run.” Though Pearson has done a poor job of scholarship, not only skipping source notes entirely, but billing her severely abridged version of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” as anonymously “North American,” these fourteen retold tales are just right for reading late at night, under the sheets, with the bedroom door closed. Her renditions are readable, tellable, and matter of fact, taking readers from graveyard (“The Brave Little Tailor”) to fen (“The Buried Moon”), from Bluebeard’s castle to an igloo where a lonely fisherman’s tears bring a “Skeleton Woman” back to life. Amply illustrating the pages, Rowe adds gleefully atmospheric touches: rows of eyes peer out of the murky swamp; Vasilissa’s father looks on with mild surprise as she blasts her cruel stepmother to ashes with a glowing skull; the wolf grins up at viewers as a cautionary lesson to all who “cry wolf” needlessly. Ready for some chills? Don’t forget to check those flashlight batteries. (Folktales. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56656-377-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
A patchwork.
A lad with “yin-yang” eyes lays two troubled ghosts to rest in this San Francisco Chinatown tale.
Jackson is haunted. He is visited by the ghosts of both his older brother, killed in the previous year’s Great Earthquake, and an unknown young woman whose appearance scares off the moviegoers attending his struggling family’s nickelodeon. The boy therefore determinedly sets off to find out what the spirits’ unfinished business might be. Jackson's investigation is prefaced by his experiences during the quake and punctuated with incidents of bullying and classroom taunting, a brief stint working in an opium parlor and collusion with an older cousin scheming to steal money and run away rather than be sent to China. The search ultimately leads to family revelations, the secretly buried bones of a young mother who died in childbirth and a ghostly “wedding” that precipitates an upbeat close. Though the story is well-stocked with specters and misadventures, it is hampered by choppy prose and a lack of distinct characters or sense of place.
A patchwork. (Historical fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-896580-96-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Tradewind Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
To be devoured with relish—though maybe not broccoli.
The Weenie-Meister’s sixth collection offers 32 more macabre minitales.
He puts the Gorgon back into “Gorgonzola,” pauses for a rousing night of vampire “Catfishing in America” and redefines “Smart Food” through an encounter with talking broccoli, among other ventures. Throughout, Lubar continues to produce short-shorts expertly spun around figures of speech, tweaked story titles and disquieting twists of fate. Pandering particularly to readers with a taste for icky treats, he trots in a protean alien who sets itself up as a sideshow self-mutilator, a bully tricked into blasting out his own cheeks and a smile-obsessed child who melts his teeth away by overusing whitening strips—among other hapless victims of bad behavior, predatory monsters or plain bad luck. The tales' extreme brevity—the longest tops out at a whopping 10 pages—makes them especially well suited to reading aloud.
To be devoured with relish—though maybe not broccoli. (end notes) (Short short stories. 10-12)Pub Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3213-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
