A book that will engage young readers with its unusual creatures and may inspire them to create their own.
A host of strange and delightful creatures made from seeds, leaves and vines populates the pages of this first children’s book by the Masons (Recovering from the War, 1998).
As the book opens, the letter A, in upper- and lowercase, introduces Andy Acorncap, a strange creature made primarily of acorns, acorn caps and vines. For the letter B, the book offers small birds made of pine cones, twigs and other natural “litter.” And so the alphabet continues, each letter introducing a strange new version of a particular creature. Some are meant to represent real animals, such as birds, a caterpillar and owls; others are named after plants or trees, such as the Evergreens, who look like they are wearing flowing pine-needle capes, or the Magnoliacone, with its long beak and acorn eyes). The intriguing creatures are the book’s primary draw, but the first two descriptions start an alliterative trend that’s sadly dropped by the letter C: “Andy Acorncap ambled along. / The Bird babies be-bopped behind. / Clarice the Caterpillar inched along, singing a song.” Since the creatures aren’t instantly recognizable, the alliterative verbs might have helped younger readers identify the repeated sounds. A zigzag alphabet on the Z page provides a challenge for the preschool crowd, as they’re asked to trace a path from one lowercase letter to the next until they’ve traced the whole alphabet in order. Notes at the end share facts about the different plants and creatures, which vary from the useful (“Zygodactylic means two toes pointing forward and two pointing back”) to the fictional (“Unicorns do have blue horns”). A final page points out the different parts that make up each creature and the types of materials that Mason used to create them. Overall, the book may be less useful as an alphabet book than as an enticement to go out into nature and gather materials for crafts.
A book that will engage young readers with its unusual creatures and may inspire them to create their own.Pub Date: June 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1892220103
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Patience Press
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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