Lemieux (Full Worm Moon, 1994, etc.) pens an intergenerational story of two children discovering their Scottish heritage. Jimmy and Jennie have been sent to their grandparents' farm in the Canadian Maritimes to help out for the summer. Discovering Jennie's love of music, the grandfather, ``Papa,'' teaches her to play his fiddle, as his grandmother had taught him. ``Music,'' he tells her, ``is the ribbon that ties people together. It goes on and on from generation to generation and never ends.'' The tangible symbol of this connection is the faded fiddle ribbon, woven into one continuous loop, a gift that came to him with his first fiddle. Jimmy, for his part, has been learning step-dancing, and the story ends with a festive ceilidh in the barn. The looping shape of the ribbon is worked into several of the thickly textured, impressionistic paintings, reinforcing the sense of connection between the children and their once-unfamiliar grandparents. A lovely story of children learning to cherish their family traditions. The score of a traditional jig tune is appended. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-382-39097-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
Diarist Keena Ford is ambivalent about second grade: Girls and boys are placed in separate classes, so she will not be with her best friend, Eric. But she resolves to do her best and when Ms. Coleman turns up on the first day of school in a “COOL BELT WITH SPARKLES,” she decides things are looking up. When she mixes up her dates and leads her teacher to believe that the next day is her birthday, greed for chocolate cake overcomes honesty, plunging her into ever-deeper hot water. Morrison’s amiable illustrations clearly depict Keena as a lively African-American girl, but there is little in the text to lend her any ethnic or cultural specificity. The result is that she seems to be just another sassy, impulsive chapter-book heroine à la Clementine or Moxy Maxwell. Still, her escapades and the way she handles them ring with an emotional honesty readers will recognize: If she continues to develop, she has the potential to become a genuine character in her own right. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3263-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charmed by her new baby brother, Elizabeti decides that she wants a baby of her own; she picks up a smooth rock, names it Eva and washes, feeds, and changes her, and carries her about in her cloth kanga. Hale dresses Elizabeti and her family in modern, brightly patterned clothing that practically glows against the earth-toned, sketchily defined Tanzanian village in which this is set. Although Eva appears a bit too large for Elizabeti to handle as easily as she does, the illustrations reflect the story’s simplicity; accompanied by an attentive hen, Elizabeti follows her indulgent mother about, mimicking each nurturing activity. The object of Elizabeti’s affection may be peculiar, but the love itself is real. Later, she rescues Eva from the fire pit, tenderly cleans her, then cradles the stone until she—Elizabeti—falls asleep. Stuve-Bodeen’s debut is quirky but believable, lightly dusted with cultural detail, and features universal emotions in an unusual setting. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 1-880000-70-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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