Rubel (Wedding Bells for Rotten Ralph, 1999, etc.) takes a piece of Americana and extrapolates a spry tale of a spirited Irish lady in frontier Texas. Ernestine is a mail-order bride beckoned from Ireland to marry Virgil Beetle. Her spirits sink when Virgil turns out to be a filthy rapscallion who lives on a ranch—a stinky, ramshackle place—with his three brothers and sister-in-law Prunella. With the preacher out of town, the wedding is stalled for a week. Meanwhile, nasty Prunella treats Ernestine as the housemaid and makes her sleep in the barn. Ernestine thinks, “I’ve seen neater pigs and more courteous donkeys than this family.” Dressed as a man, Ernestine escapes out the back to wander the prairies. There she is discovered by Texas Teeth, a jovial cowboy with pearly whites. Believing she’s a man named Ernest T., Texas Teeth and his gang teach Ernestine to herd and rope. When her wages aren’t enough to get her back to Ireland, Ernestine signs up for a calf-roping contest to earn the rest, but a nasty trick is played, and she finds herself bull-riding instead. This dastardly deed serves to reveal Ernestine’s mane of red hair and her real gender. Not such a bad thing, it turns out, for the story ends with Ernestine in a wedding dress after all. Rubel’s illustrations tell half the story with a brightly colored palate, rosy-cheeked characters, and intricately detailed surroundings. In fact, sharp-eyed readers will enjoy finding little animals in the scenery and an armadillo on every page. This tale is a treat all the way around. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8037-2152-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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