A cute story that doesn’t reach the high places it could.
An ordinary mouse, dreaming of a less ordinary life, sets off on a journey that tests her in this new take on the story told by John Steptoe in The Story of Jumping Mouse (1984).
When a little female mouse suggests to the other mice that they set off to find the High Places of legend, she realizes the others don’t want a different life, and so she chooses to go alone. Soon, she comes to a fast-moving river where she meets Grandfather Frog. Moved by “the eagerness of [her] heart,” Grandfather Frog gifts her his ability to leap great distances and calls her Jumping Mouse. As she continues her journey, Jumping Mouse encounters Brother Buffalo and Sister Wolf, both of whom she finds distressed and crying. Displaying compassion, she gives the one her vision and the other her sense of smell, jeopardizing her own quest. Though the simple story lacks high dramatic conflict, the illustrations—hand-built, clay-sculpted characters photographed in real-life natural settings—provide visual interest and deserve praise. Younger readers will mostly enjoy the animal characters while older ones will likely engage with themes of friendship, self-sacrifice, and the importance of following one’s dreams. Some readers may find it troubling that misinformed beliefs in a singular, pan-Indian culture are reinforced by the generic subtitle as well as by the absence of the author/illustrator’s specific tribal affiliation/descent or even any note on the story’s origin.
A cute story that doesn’t reach the high places it could. (author’s note, note on art) (Picture book/folktale. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62414-817-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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