A thin version of a relatively familiar tale. Orphaned Chinye comes back from a dangerous errand with a magic gourd that proves to be filled with riches. Her spoiled stepsister Adanma sets out to fetch another, but in her arrogance gets one containing a destructive wind. This differs from other renditions in that Chinye isn't rewarded for any virtue (she simply complains to an old woman, who takes pity on her), while the telling is so cursory that readers will be uninvolved. Safarewicz dresses her figures in elaborately patterned traditional costumes that stand out brightly against jungles painted in large, sweeping strokes—visual drama that the text never matches. The tale gets richer treatment in San Souci's Talking Eggs (1989). (Folklore/Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-670-85115-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
Egan will crack up even the dourest of readers with this devastatingly deadpan episode. Weary of life with Farmer Fred, who is given to pronouncements like, “Nothing funny about corn,” a group of farm animals tries everything from circus tricks to dressing in his clothes in an effort to get him to lighten up. At last, discouraged, they sneak away. But Farmer Fred follows, coaxing them to come back with a barely perceptible “heh, heh,” and the poker-faced warning that there are lions in the woods. Like James Marshall, Egan gives his simply drawn figures tiny, but wonderfully expressive eyes. Children may roll theirs—but here’s a telling demonstration that a serious disposition isn’t the same as a humorless one. Heh, heh. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-22694-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
Two snowflakes—along with “seven billion four / Hundred million, maybe more”—twirl a dance down night skies, hitch a ride on Santa’s sleigh, reach Times Square just in time to see the Ball drop, then flutter off across recognizable New York scenes to Central Park, to spend the rest of the winter on a welcoming snow-lad. Desimini matches Lewis’s sprightly verse with equally exuberant collages made from fragments of printed ads, cut paper, and bits of fluff and tissue. Though “the splendor-ender, Spring” brings an end to the gaiety, it is but a temporary halt, for “Winter called out cold and clear, / ‘I’ll bring you back again . . . next year!’ ” Never has the snowy season been celebrated with more joie de vivre. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85029-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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