THE BLUE POOL OF QUESTIONS

Name: THE BLUE POOL OF QUESTIONS
Author: Maya Abu-Alhayyat
ISBN: 978-0-9987999-0-2

by Maya Abu-Alhayyat ; illustrated by Hassan Manasrah ; translated by Hanan Awad ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2017

Deliciously confounding and deeply moving, this book is a work of art in pictures and words for adults and children alike.

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From Palestinian writer Abu-Alhayyat comes a lyrical tale of a strange man who is rejected by the people of the city but finds comfort in his curiosity.

With dried flowers, strange songs, and stacks of books that turn everything into questions, the odd man wanders through town. When the questions become a pool in the city streets, and then a lake, and then an ocean, the people are furious, confused and frightened. The cool blues, vibrant greens, warm reds, and haunting whites of the remarkable, angularly surreal illustrations make up a palette of deep, almost tangible emotion suitable to the story’s journey. Something inside the pool invites the man to come in, and the people of the city urge him to go. Inside the pool, the man finds the Answer, personified in the text but not corporeal in the illustrations. Everything is different, and he is no longer strange. The man and the Answer become friends, and they only know kindness and questions. Readers are encouraged “to ask more questions, throw them into the blue pool, be brave, and dive in.” The overt moral on the final page takes the tale in the direction of a legend, a tidy ending for this otherwise unusual story.

Deliciously confounding and deeply moving, this book is a work of art in pictures and words for adults and children alike. (Picture book. 6-adult)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-9987999-0-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Penny Candy

Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the School for Good and Evil series , Vol. 1

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

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Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)