A whimsical artistic meditation that perhaps needed more time on the drawing board.
Inspired by Rousseau’s painting of the same name, Gerstein imagines a dream that provoked the artist to create it.
It’s unfortunate that a different book title highlighting the dream conceit, rather than reiterating the painting title’s problematic use of “gypsy,” wasn’t used. A prologue includes a black-and-white drawing of a child looking at the painting and explicitly says, “this book suggests some of the answers” to possible questions prompted by the mysterious scene. Although she appears neither childlike nor small, the text refers to the sleeping person as “a girl” and identifies her as a figure in Rousseau’s dream. Instead of answering questions that would put her story at the center (Why is she walking through the desert? What is her name? Where is she going?), the text and art introduce animals (including the lion that looms over the figure in the painting) that enter Rousseau’s dream and speculate about her. Then Rousseau enters his own dream, announcing that both girl and animals are there "so that I may paint a picture," which reinforces her marginalization. When Rousseau himself awakens, he, of course, paints his dream—minus all the animals but the lion, as they become so contentious he omits them. Gerstein ably captures the dreaminess of both his subject and the story, but although the participation of the animals is a child-friendly device, it serves to distract readers from the unanswered questions about the title character.
A whimsical artistic meditation that perhaps needed more time on the drawing board. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2142-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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