When Sophie has to surrender one toy to her sister, stumbles over another toy, and gets no sympathy from her mother, she runs furiously out into the woods, first to cry, and then sit in a huge old beech, watching the ocean until the tempest abates. Bang (Common Ground, 1997, etc.) captures the intensity of Sophie’s feelings with strong, broadly brushed forms and colors: images of flames and a volcano; blue eyes glaring up from a red background that looks as if it’s exploding; then harmonious, leafy greens and browns; and concluding scenes of domestic amity. This briefly told behavior-management episode explores well-worked thematic territory, but as in Hiawyn Oram’s Angry Arthur (1989)—and in contrast to the child in Betsy Everitt’s Mean Soup (1992)—Sophie finds a way to cope with her anger, quite laudably, without a helping adult hand. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-18979-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What should be the best day ever turns bumpy for young Rosemary. The night before her birthday, she’s so excited she jumps up and down on her bed, reminding her brother Petey that he has to be nice to her. But the next morning, things go steadily downhill. Rosemary’s horrible out-of-town cousins come for a visit, Mom doesn’t make her the special breakfast she expected and she takes her bad mood to school, where it gets her into deeper trouble with her teacher, Ms. Swanson. When Principal Neeble informs Rosemary that it’s Ms. Swanson’s birthday too, the little girl realizes that she should have been nice to her teacher, and rushes to make amends. They share cake and confidences. Bottner offers a couple more twists in her subtle tale about feelings and friendships, and Mai-Wyss’s busy paintings are full of sly jokes. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-399-24295-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2007
In this modest, wordless, tongue-in-cheek episode (available since 2004 with a Spanish title), a sheep knits a cozy gift from its own wool. Sporting realistic-looking fluffs, the simply drawn protagonist first primps before a mirror, carefully measuring the growing wool, then zooms to the store aboard a motor scooter for bright red dye. Having dyed the fleece and then clipped it off, the sheep has it spun into yarn by an elaborately groomed poodle (with—a European touch if ever there was one—a cigarette dangling from its lips), and sets to with the needles on a voluminous project. But what, and for whom? Both questions are answered at the end: It’s a sweater for a giraffe, who bends down its now-comfy-warm neck to bestow a kiss on the blushing ovine. A feel-good tale in any language, bright in both mood and color. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-932425-85-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lemniscaat/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
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