Intriguing and enchanting, with the rich allusiveness of poetry.
An atmosphere of magical realism surrounds three interrelated short stories about an aberrant elevator, the legend of Icarus, and a girl who can fly.
“Will you tell us a story—a tale of wonderment?” This question appears in the third of these short stories, but all three tell wondrous tales. In “The Elevator,” a young man in Paris for his first business trip finds that his hotel’s elevator seems to have a mind and motion of its own, moving sideways and depositing him in unexpected locations. He has unsettling encounters that remind him of his limitations (for example, understanding art) and losses (family and faith). Looking back, he wonders why he avoided taking the elevator a fifth time. In the title story, a young scientist muses on the Greek myth of Icarus and his own childhood dreams of flying, inspired by viewing Pablo Picasso’s painting The Fall of Icarus. He reimagines the story so that Icarus succeeds—not by flying the recommended middle way, but by improving his father’s wings. Flight again takes center stage in “The Girl.” The narrator, an archivist, is a young woman who can’t remember her own name. She meets an elderly couple and tells them her “tale of wonderment” about a schoolgirl who masters the art of flying, breaking free from those who would ground her. The old woman reassures her that “Eventually you’ll remember your true name.” Bates (At the Sharp End of Lightning, 2015) has a sure and delicate touch. His stories have a dreamlike quality where oddities may puzzle but are taken for granted. Though Bates writes with a lovely crystalline clarity, understanding is elusive for his characters; when the first narrator asks a graffiti artist what his work means, the artist replies, “It means nothing. Why should this mean anything to you? Perhaps I don’t want to be deciphered.” The stories have a mournful sense of lost opportunity or talent denied, especially the first, but the last two hold out hope for retelling one’s story in transformative ways.
Intriguing and enchanting, with the rich allusiveness of poetry.Pub Date: March 31, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9931905-8-2
Page Count: 66
Publisher: NR Bates Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A simple ABC book whose vibrant photographs will grab kids’ attention.
Debut authors Pi and Pi offer a debut picture-book alphabet of occupations, featuring photos of children playing dress-up.
Each of the 26 pages of this book features a photo, with illustrated details, of a child in the midst of a game of dress-up and imagination. The first shows a cheerful girl, costumed as a doctor, imagining, “What can I be today?” For “A,” a young artist paints on an easel; then, in a transition sentence, she decides to do ballet. The next page shows a ballerina who, when she gets hungry, visits a chef—and so on. Most transitions make sense, and the photos of children with occupation props, set against mostly white backgrounds, offer plenty of smiles. The simple sentences make this book easy to read aloud to its early childhood target audience. However, a few job titles may be a stretch for them to understand, such as “geologist,” “horticulturalist,” and “optician.” The jobs are varied and include artistic positions (illustrator, knitter, musician), service professions (firefighter, judge, librarian, soldier), and science jobs (engineer, X-ray technician). Surprisingly, the only sports-related position is an umpire, but a leading question at the end, about other jobs that one may discover, leaves room for young listeners to create their own.
A simple ABC book whose vibrant photographs will grab kids’ attention.Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4808-5453-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.
Diehl’s debut poetry collection showcases the arduous search for human connection and self-understanding.
In free verse poems that combine strong metaphors with prosaic passages, the poet wanders along a lifelong path of self-knowledge. She first describes it as a “pilgrimage…to accept what’s been deemed unworthy inside us,” and the trail leads to important insights. In a plainly stated yet necessary reminder, the author asserts that being human, despite the loneliness one may encounter, “is not a solitary pursuit.” Above all else, the book voices a desire for transparency in the self and in others. In “Clear Stream,” moving water illuminates objects within it, even as mystery waits at the bottom, and the water’s clarity corresponds to the speaker’s offering of his- or herself to view: “Here I am. // Come see me if you want.” Sometimes the tumble of words in these short stanzas suggests a pouring forth of injury: “It’s the show-stopping blow of loss upending a heart pain over pain till capacity for love regulates its beating.” Readers will understand a back story involving love and loss, difficulty in communication, sadness, and acceptance of children growing up. The poems gain strength from well-chosen accompanying images, including sketches and paintings by Dimenichi and colorful works by Jamaican-born painter Powell that enrich the verbal landscape. Several full-page images by each artist appear, suggesting a thematic connection or amplifying an emotion in a given poem. A richly textured, grand illustration of a tree by Dimenichi, for example, appears alongside a poem that celebrates the inspiration of such towering entities. A poem concerned with self-reflection joins a Powell painting of floating, twinned female forms. The figures seem to both depict and satisfy the speaker’s need to be seen, with their emphasis on mirror images, body doubles, and echoes of shapes. Even the windshield of a car can be a “two way mirror” behind which the driver is “invisible to life outside.” An explicitly female body is glimpsed in the sketches, and the warm, dreamlike compositions give it substance.
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-304-13091-4
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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