A whimsical folktale filled with music and magic.
Three Chinese sisters outsmart Emperor Wang with the power of music.
Emperor Wang is infamous for his endless wars. His advisers summon court musicians Lady Li and Master Yen, whose singing and erhu playing often soothes him. The couple’s young daughters are also gifted musicians, and Emperor Wang demands that they come, too. Lady Li and Master Yen are initially reluctant, but they give in to his threats. Master Yen offers each daughter advice: “Stay true to your music, and you will see its power and its magic.” First Sister arrives accompanied by her mother and plays her flute. When Emperor Wang blocks their exit, First Sister plays again, and the palace paintings of birds come alive; amid the confusion, First Sister flees. Second Daughter comes next to play her gu zheng. When Emperor Wang stops her, her music brings to life images of waterfalls, and she escapes. By the time Third Sister arrives, Emperor Wang has stripped the walls of art, but she nevertheless finds a creative solution as she plays her pipa. Pursued by Emperor Wang, the sisters all play their music, summoning mythological creatures and bringing the tale to a fantastical climax that brings peace to the kingdom. The straightforward narrative is accompanied by detailed line drawings with bold colors set against white backdrops. Characters have exaggerated facial expressions; Emperor Wang’s features are especially distorted to emphasize his grotesque nature.
A whimsical folktale filled with music and magic. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: June 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781990598265
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tradewind Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure.
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
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