by Patricia Polacco & illustrated by Patricia Polacco ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2001
A doll becomes the vehicle for Polacco's (The Butterfly, 2000, etc.) deeply felt remembrance of her mother, Mary Ellen. Told as a letter from a dying woman to her daughter, the story follows the author's mother from age six to old age, using Betty Doll as an ever-present reference point. "She sat on my dresser in the dorm, and then in Mrs. Borchst's boarding house when I got my first teaching job." This is at its most effective when telling of Mary Ellen as a child: in one sequence, she cuts the skirt of her aunt's best dress for a new dress for Betty Doll; in another, a fallen Betty Doll marks the place where Mary Ellen and her brother are trapped in a blizzard. But as Mary Ellen grows older, the story compresses her life into an obituary of sorts, becoming a recitation of adult events: marriage, divorce, the birth of her children, her mother's death, and finally Mary Ellen's own cancer. Although these events clearly mean much to the author, they are remote from a child's experience and lack the narrative excitement of the earlier episodes, and Betty Doll's presence becomes an almost mechanically noted device. The illustrations are wonderfully evocative of old photographs: the pencil drawings are nearly entirely black-and-white, with Betty Doll almost always the only spot of color on the page. This documentary effect is heightened by the inclusion of electronically reproduced family photographs that let the reader see the actual Mary Ellen growing up even as her story is being told. It is a beautiful, loving treatment of one woman's life, but in the end likely to resonate more with adults than children. (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-23638-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
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by Dr. Seuss ; illustrated by Dr. Seuss ; introduction by Charles D. Cohen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2014
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent.
Published in magazines, never seen since / Now resurrected for pleasure intense / Versified episodes numbering four / Featuring Marco, and Horton and more!
All of the entries in this follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories (2011) involve a certain amount of sharp dealing. Horton carries a Kwuggerbug through crocodile-infested waters and up a steep mountain because “a deal is a deal”—and then is cheated out of his promised share of delicious Beezlenuts. Officer Pat heads off escalating, imagined disasters on Mulberry Street by clubbing a pesky gnat. Marco (originally met on that same Mulberry Street) concocts a baroque excuse for being late to school. In the closer, a smooth-talking Grinch (not the green sort) sells a gullible Hoobub a piece of string. In a lively introduction, uber-fan Charles D. Cohen (The Seuss, The Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss, 2002) provides publishing histories, places characters and settings in Seussian context, and offers insights into, for instance, the origin of “Grinch.” Along with predictably engaging wordplay—“He climbed. He grew dizzy. His ankles grew numb. / But he climbed and he climbed and he clum and he clum”—each tale features bright, crisply reproduced renditions of its original illustrations. Except for “The Hoobub and the Grinch,” which has been jammed into a single spread, the verses and pictures are laid out in spacious, visually appealing ways.
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-38298-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer ; illustrated by Simini Blocker ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 18, 2019
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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