The team responsible for the well-reviewed Keepers and Creatures at the National Zoo (1988) here presents a less successful book based on their visit to China. Featuring the children of Changsah, capital of Hunan province, in a kaleidoscope of life at school, in the streets, and at home, Thomson's lively prose is combined with quotes from the children themselves and Conklin's crisply reproduced photos for a telling glimpse of these youngsters' activities and their society. Though the city's history is briefly discussed in an introduction, the book as a whole provides little context or overall structure (e.g., two English language teachers appear and disappear without explanation); and though Thomson's style is engagingly informal, an occasional phrase is infelicitous (``busted spokes''). The result is sometimes confusing, but is consistently diverting. Conklin's b&w photos aptly catch the mood. A good book that could have been excellent. (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: April 15, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-021654-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child.
Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school. Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. / … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. / They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class. Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back.
An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59078-985-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
Did you like this book?
Comedian and actor Ayoade explores storytelling and books themselves.
Readers are quickly introduced to the premise: The narrator of this book…is the book itself. Directly addressing the audience, the narrator waxes philosophical about judging books by covers before plunging readers into a story told in second person about a child who finds “a particular Book That No One Wanted To Read” on a library shelf. Interspersed with imagined, telepathic dialogue between reader and book, this delightfully droll work casually covers everything from footnotes to story structure; information about excess unwanted books being “pulped” by publishers leads to a gag about the book not wanting to be recycled into toilet paper. The design is clean, with different fonts effectively used to maintain speaker clarity, and facts about books blend beautifully with wacky, tongue-in-cheek illustrations. The character “you” is a reader stand-in with a humorous composite depiction (and so lacks race, gender, or any other identity, though other people depicted throughout are diverse in skin tone). In many ways a spiritual successor to B.J. Novak’s The Book With No Pictures (2014), the book (and Book, the character) will encourage readers to approach literature with a sense of play.
Lovingly crafted metafictive silliness both experimental and engaging. (Illustrated fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2216-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
Did you like this book?
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
