A comforting, if sometimes-contradictory, book about exploring possibilities.
In this illustrated children’s book, a mouse explores the world with the help of an unseen Voice.
Henry lives with the Wilson family, although they don’t know he’s there. The mouse comes out at night to scavenge for food, but his favorite time of day is the Wilsons’ dinnertime, when the family of four exchanges stories about what they’ve been doing during the day. These stories make Henry curious about the outside world; he’s not sure if he’s ready to venture into the unknown, but that’s “the only way he could tell his own story.” At first, he doesn’t go far, but sleeps in some nearby autumn leaves. The next day, he has doubts about heading out, but then a “Voice” speaks to him: “I am here to help you explore this new world around you.” Reassured, Henry keeps going farther afield; some experiences are fun, such as visiting a playground, and others are scary, as when he escapes a buzzard. Whenever he starts missing his home, the Voice guides him back. Although the mouse feels sad that he can’t actually tell his own story at the dinner table, he can still remember his adventures. One night, the Voice reveals the truth: “I am the Spirit of the Almighty God who truly loves and cares about your welfare….[B]e the best you can be knowing you are safe and loved.” Hurley (Close Encounters with My Lord, 2010, etc.) gets off to a slow start in her tale of exploration; Chapter 5, titled “Henry’s Adventure Begins,” doesn’t even get off the front porch, and it’s not until Chapter 9—also titled “Henry’s Adventure Begins”—that he leaves the front yard. The overall theme of divine love and safety is an appealing one. At times, though, the Voice solves Henry’s problems for him—for example, by telling him how to return home and get back inside the house—which undercuts the encouraging message about discovering new things for oneself. Warno’s (Timmy and Tammy: The Sea Turtles Adventures, 2019, etc.) pen-and-watercolor illustrations capture Henry’s inquisitiveness and depict nature well. However, the human figures have a stiff, clumsy appearance.
A comforting, if sometimes-contradictory, book about exploring possibilities.Pub Date: May 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-973660-01-9
Page Count: 47
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Troubled teen meets totemic catalyst in Mikaelsen’s (Petey, 1998, etc.) earnest tribute to Native American spirituality. Fifteen-year-old Cole is cocky, embittered, and eaten up by anger at his abusive parents. After repeated skirmishes with the law, he finally faces jail time when he viciously beats a classmate. Cole’s parole officer offers him an alternative—Circle Justice, an innovative justice program based on Native traditions. Sentenced to a year on an uninhabited Arctic island under the supervision of Edwin, a Tlingit elder, Cole provokes an attack from a titanic white “Spirit Bear” while attempting escape. Although permanently crippled by the near-death experience, he is somehow allowed yet another stint on the island. Through Edwin’s patient tutoring, Cole gradually masters his rage, but realizes that he needs to help his former victims to complete his own healing. Mikaelsen paints a realistic portrait of an unlikable young punk, and if Cole’s turnaround is dramatic, it is also convincingly painful and slow. Alas, the rest of the characters are cardboard caricatures: the brutal, drunk father, the compassionate, perceptive parole officer, and the stoic and cryptic Native mentor. Much of the plot stretches credulity, from Cole’s survival to his repeated chances at rehabilitation to his victim being permitted to share his exile. Nonetheless, teens drawn by the brutality of Cole’s adventures, and piqued by Mikaelsen’s rather muscular mysticism, might absorb valuable lessons on anger management and personal responsibility. As melodramatic and well-meaning as the teens it targets. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-380-97744-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-87175-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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