A well-meaning but flawed representation of Spanglish.
Friendship and Spanglish form a loose connection in this picture book about a young Latina girl who lives on the U.S.–Mexico border.
“¡Ai’ te wacho! María de la Luz loves speaking Spanglish with friends and family. Many in the border town of Calexico speak it, too. Grandma, however, wants María to speak “proper Spanish or English,” not just Spanglish. Though María tries her best to please Grandma, she can’t stop using the local dialect. “All the kids understand me. We all talk the same.” Everybody, that is, except Miguel, the new boy in school. Every day after school, María greets him in Spanglish, but he doesn’t seem to understand her. He speaks only Spanish. Luckily, María knows what to do; readers will know, too. The predictable ending here works against Laufer’s unfocused narrative, which meanders due to halfhearted conflicts and a bare-bones plot. The author attempts to capture Calexico’s diverse culture and María’s home life in broad strokes, but it all adds up to too little. The story soars highest when focused on María and her friends. Equal parts shaggy, colorful, and outlandish, Roth’s collage artwork crackles with weird energy, featuring disproportionate limbs and bodies in unusual poses. The boldface and italicized text help depict the differences between the languages in a tidy way.
A well-meaning but flawed representation of Spanglish. (references, glossary) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-939604-10-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Barranca Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
Vivid glimpses of what waits for anyone who is willing to stop just looking and go.
A stirring invitation to leap, dive, soar, plunge and thrill to the natural world’s wonders and glories.
“Right outside your window there’s a world to explore,” writes Kerley. “Ready?” In huge, bright, sharply focused photos, a hang glider and a mountain climber dangle in midair, a paleontologist carefully brushes dirt off a fossil, an astronaut dangles near the International Space Station, and spelunkers clamber amid spectacular crystals. These dramatic images mingle with equally eye-filling scenes of muddy, soaked, laughing young children—some venturing alone down a forest path or over jumbles of rock, others peering into a snow cave or a starry sky. “Size things up,” suggests the author. “Get a firm grip. Then… / …start climbing.” This may well leave safety-obsessed parents with the vapors, but that may be all to the good. Explanatory captions for several of the photographs, from very brief profiles of the explorers to the stories behind the photos themselves, appear at the end.
Vivid glimpses of what waits for anyone who is willing to stop just looking and go. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4263-1114-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
A one-trick pony—and the visual trick is much better presented in Rufus Butler Seder’s actual Scanimation series.
A low-rent Scanimation-knockoff import features a small sheet of finely barred plastic that creates moiré patterns and streams of movement when slid across a set of large, garish abstracts.
Aside from a mention of Central Park in the text and a “Broadway” street sign in one illustration, there is nothing here specific to the Big Apple. Instead, a carrot-nosed cartoon figure in striped pajamas floats over swirls of short, bar code–like lines. These are transformed, by sliding the plastic sheet very slowly across the page, into aerial views of dots, circles and spinning wheels moving through intersections or vaguely urban settings. Some scenes toward the end become fields of flashing lights intense enough to make the cautionary note on the back cover (“WARNING: CONTAINS FLASHING IMAGES”) a good idea. After delivering commentary that runs to inane lines like “The traffic speeds in a tangled race, / but all roads lead to much the same place,” the PJ-clad guide flies back to bed with a “Wakey, wakey, rise and shine! / Goodbye my friend, / Until next time.” A “next time” is unlikely for most readers.
A one-trick pony—and the visual trick is much better presented in Rufus Butler Seder’s actual Scanimation series. (Picture book/novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-907912-23-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Trafalgar Square
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013
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