Taut and heartwarming.
A boy rescues an albatross after it is hooked by a fishing line.
Javier is out at sea with his fisherman father, Tomas, and Uncle Felipe, helping with the fishing lines, when he sees an albatross has become hooked. Uncle Felipe unhooks the bird and throws it onto a corner of the boat, ignoring it. But Javier sneaks the still-alive bird into the boat’s hold and later, when they reach their home port, hides the bird in the storeroom behind the house. Caring for the bird with the help of neighbors, Javier hopes to have the bird healed by the time he goes back out to sea in two weeks. But he comes home one day to discover that his father, having found out about the bird, has sold it to a fairground manager. Javier’s already-tenuous relationship with his father since the death of his mother boils over. Javier finds the bird and runs off with her to the cliff’s edge, reckless of his own safety, as he is determined to convince the bird to fly away. The assured storytelling has a crispness that feels fresh and immediate, and the colorful illustrations echo this immediacy and confidence in their spontaneous-looking execution. All human characters are illustrated with beige skin and dark hair and eyes, and the honorifics (Señor, Señora, Señorita) probably indicate, due to albatross range, a South American setting.
Taut and heartwarming. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1284-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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