Told and illustrated with equal spareness, this tender Japanese tale will please young readers who find the fate of the oysters in “The Walrus and the Carpenter” discomfiting. Having left her “mean and feisty” years behind, an old witch not only can’t bring herself to pour the bagful of small, gently snoring clams she’s brought home into her boiling miso soup, but when they wake and begin to cry, she offers to take them back to the shore. Buying train tickets for so many, however, seems impossible—until the clams begin to sing “with pretty little voices, like tiny popping bubbles,” charming enough contributions from passersby to finance the trip. By the end not, only have the faces that Kojima puts on the clam shells in her tiny, delicate line drawings gone from dismay to delight, but the habitual frowns on the witch and her bad-tempered cat have likewise changed to smiles. All live happily ever after on the beach, “surrounded by the pretty voices of the clams, the gentle sound of the waves, and the warmth of the sun.” A feel-good episode if ever there was one. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-933605-12-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
With wordplay reminiscent of Margie Palatini at her best, Helakoski takes four timorous chickens into, then out of, the literal and figurative woods. Fleeing the henhouse after catching sight of a wolf, the pusillanimous pullets come to a deep ditch: “ ‘What if we can’t jump that far?’ ‘What if we fall in the ditch?’ ‘What if we get sucked into the mud?’ The chickens tutted, putted, and flutted. They butted into themselves and each other, until one by one . . . ” they do fall in. But then they pick themselves up and struggle out. Ensuing encounters with cows and a lake furnish similar responses and outcomes; ultimately they tumble into the wolf’s very cave, where they “picked, pecked, and pocked. They ruffled, puffled, and shuffled. They shrieked, squeaked, and freaked, until . . . ” their nemesis scampers away in panic. Fluttering about in pop-eyed terror, the portly, partly clothed hens make comical figures in Cole’s sunny cartoons (as does the flummoxed wolf)—but the genuine triumph in their final strut—“ ‘I am a big, brave chicken,’ said one chicken. ‘Ohh . . . ’ said the others. ‘Me too.’ ‘Me three.’ ‘Me four’ ”—brings this tribute to chicken power to a rousing close. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-525-47575-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
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