Polacco again mines her family history for a true story based on her grandmother’s large family. Frankie is the youngest son in a big family of nine children, with everyone working together on their farm in Michigan. The story takes place during the Christmas when Frankie is ten, when his father is delayed by blizzards when he goes by horse and buggy to buy the oranges for the traditional family Christmas treat. Polacco reveals Frankie’s personality through several incidents, one involving the loss of his special orange. Introductory and closing notes introduce the family history and explain that Frankie died following this last Christmas. The longer story provides lots of details of 1900s-era farm life and Christmas celebrations, augmented by Polacco’s fine watercolor-and-pencil illustrations of snowy Michigan scenes and the crowded farm house. Told with a sentimental, old-fashioned tone that works well with the setting, this occasionally crosses over into the maudlin, especially in the sections that deal with Frankie’s death; Polacco’s illustrations, however, are timeless in their portrayal of a happy family enjoying life together. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-399-24302-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2004
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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