"When Papa was away at sea/ And Mama in the arbor/ Ida played her wonder horn/ to rock the baby still/ but never watched." Sendak's latest picture book recalls Where the Wild Things Are in the way it plunges us into the stream of a child's life, without a preliminary word. As in The Wild Things and In the Night Kitchen, the words throughout are few, reverberant, and rhythmic in a fluent, self-contained way that never deigns, here, to quite fulfill our ears' expectations. Here the poetry is more subtly charged, suggestive, and almost hypnotic—an effect that is reinforced by these more complex pictures, which abandon cartoons to communicate and interact with the story from within the traditions of painting. What happens when Ida is not watching is that two faceless, hooded figures—familiar from previous Sendak work, as are other images here—appear at the window and "pull the baby out." The monstrous, stating changeling they leave in her place turns to ice in Ida's arms, whereupon she dons her mother's yellow raincoat and flies off—literally, though it looks more like floating, against agitated clouds, lost and awkward in the elaborate golden folds of some old drapery master's madonna cloak. (One wonders, at times, how these art-historical references relate to the emotional content of the story.) In any case, Ida is off to retrieve her sister from the goblins, who would marry the baby to one of their nasty company. But then the sinister goblins prove to be only babies, and Ida charms them and makes them "dancing sick" with a captivating tune. (The dancing goblin babies' expressions, from innocent delight to one sly smirk, are a study in themselves.) Returning safe through tranquil soft-toned countryside, Ida seems to be heading toward a Rackhamesque tree about to pounce—but not so. Butterflies flit softly around the tree, and off to the left behind the path Ida has passed, Mozart sits serenely in a little shelter, unremarked. Scarcely a spread is without a vista of the sea, with a ship in the distance and a storm that is most violent at the kidnapping and gives way to soft blue skies at the end. There's much to see, much to feel, much to follow, and all of it beautifully integrated. Whether it has the direct, elemental strength of Sendak's previous picture books is less certain.
Pub Date: April 22, 1981
ISBN: 0060255234
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1981
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In an imaginative wordless picture book, Wiesner (illustrator of Kite Flyer, 1986) tours a dream world suggested by the books and objects in a boy's room. A series of transitions—linked by a map in the book that the boy was reading as he fell asleep—wafts him, pajama-clad, from an aerial view of hedge-bordered fields to a chessboard with chess pieces, some changing into their realistic counterparts (plus a couple of eerie roundheaded figures based on pawns that reappear throughout); next appear a castle; a mysterious wood in which lurks a huge, whimsical dragon; the interior of a neoclassical palace; and a series of fantastic landscapes that eventually transport the boy back to his own bed. Most interesting here are the visual links Wiesner uses in his journey's evolution; it's fun to trace the many details from page to page. There's a bow to Van Allsburg, and another to Sendak's In the Night Kitchen, but Wiesner's broad double-spreads of a dream world—whose muted colors suggest a silent space outside of time—have their own charm. Intriguing.
Pub Date: April 20, 1988
ISBN: 978-0-06-156741-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1988
© Copyright 2026 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.
