When they move 50 miles north into Canada, Papa decrees that Moses, Hannah's beloved cat, must stay behind: he ``would only jump out [of the cart] and run away.'' But next winter, with Papa off earning food and Mama and the younger children at the end of their provisions, Moses proves himself in the classic tradition by showing up with a snowshoe rabbit. Kinsey-Warnock (The Canada Geese Quilt, 1989, ALA Notable) brings authentic, well-selected details to her simple, graceful account, while, in the spirit of Renoir, Graham's lush, impressionistic paintings idealize the woodland frontier and winsome children. He's not always literally accurate (snowshoe rabbits aren't white in summer; some of these primeval trees are incredibly huge), but the art suits the warmly appealing story. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-525-65068-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
Plain but pleasingly cadenced, concrete as the list of commodities that makes up much of the text, yet radiating a sense of life's cyclic rhythms, this tells of an early New England farmer going off to Portsmouth market. He sells products the family has raised and grown, sells products they have made from what they raised and grew, then sells the containers (apple barrel, potato bag) the goods were in, and finally sells his ox cart, harness, and ox, before buying some humble household tools and walking home (with "coins still in his pocket") to start again. . . "stitching a new harness for the young ox in the barn." Without Cooney's illustrations—comely and decorous scenes in the manner of early American folk painting—this might seem almost too plain. But she makes a satisfying, full (and eye-filling) experience of the everyday round, as she follows the farmer and his family through the peaceful countryside and the changing seasons—reflecting their unselfconscious accord with nature in her own seamless accord with the text.
Pub Date: Oct. 22, 1979
ISBN: 978-0-670-53328-2
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As atmospheric as its companion, Twilight Comes Twice, this tone poem pairs poetically intense writing with luminescent oils featuring widely spaced houses, open lawns, and clumps of autumnal trees, all lit by a huge full moon. Fletcher tracks that moon’s nocturnal path in language rich in metaphor: “With silent slippers / it climbs the night stairs,” “staining earth and sky with a ghostly glow,” lighting up a child’s bedroom, the wings of a small plane, moonflowers, and, ranging further afield, harbor waves and the shells of turtle hatchlings on a beach. Using creamy brushwork and subtly muted colors, Kiesler depicts each landscape, each night creature from Luna moths to a sleepless child and her cat, as well as the great moon sweeping across star-flecked skies, from varied but never vertiginous angles. Closing with moonset, as dawn illuminates the world with a different kind of light, this makes peaceful reading either in season, or on any moonlit night. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-16451-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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