This enjoyable tidbit of historical time will no doubt have kids remembering William Howard Taft, 27th president of the US, for at least one thing: his size (over 300 pounds) and his love for food, thanks to the jolly, rotund depictions of the balloon-shaped man. A young boy remembers the day in 1909 when President Taft came to his town to dedicate the new flagpole. The crowd cheered and the Firemen’s Band played when the train whooshed into the station and the portly president squeezed himself out the door. Before he reached the flagpole, he sniffed a wonderful aroma. It’s the spaghetti at Tony’s Italian Village, the boy responds and takes Taft there where he polishes off a giant plateful—but that’s not the aroma. Next, they try Big Ed’s Barbecue followed by Mrs. Wong’s Hunan Palace. Still not the right smell. Following his nose, Taft leads the parade of townspeople to Acacia Avenue, where the boy lives and his mom’s apple pie is cooling on the windowsill. Taft’s eagerness to taste the treat sends the pie sailing into the air, but the boy catches it, saves the day and the pie for the president to eat. Though fictional, the story could have happened, as two paragraphs on the back of the title page provide context and profile Taft. The colorful, playful illustrations capture the energy of the comical situation and effective double-page spreads are backdrops of small-town life with Taft’s figure dominating the pages surrounded by round-faced, rosy-cheeked people. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46887-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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