This clever home-away-home arc with a “go with the flow” twist has the added bonus of motivating readers’ engagement.
Two friends rent a sailboat, get lost, become shipwrecked, and end up on a (seemingly) deserted beach.
Bob, a Type A personality, and Joss, a classic Type B, are friends (both are white). The book opens on a beach as Bob informs Joss that he is bored. Joss suggests renting a sailboat, but Bob is hesitant, afraid they will get lost. Joss assures him they won’t. Not only do they get lost, they encounter a storm, become shipwrecked, and finally wash up on a beach. Throughout it all, their overachiever-vs.–laid-back personality differences are what drive both the plot and the humor. After the shipwreck, Bob is all about responsibility and control as he builds a shelter and tries to make a fire, while Joss is all about being in the moment as he savors a coconut and listens to the waves. Vogel’s illustrations alternate between sequential panels that emphasize the droll dialogue exchanges and single- and double-page spreads that add both setting and emotional ambiance. GPS coordinates on each verso page add a clever tangential story, and motivated readers who plot them (easily done with a computer) will get a jump on the surprise ending (as will readers who explore the illustrations very closely).
This clever home-away-home arc with a “go with the flow” twist has the added bonus of motivating readers’ engagement. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-241531-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
No substitutes for more traditional renditions—but not spoiled by the alterations, either.
Chicken Little may not be “the brightest chicken in the coop,” but he’s definitely not the only birdbrain in this version of the classic tale.
In East’s cartoon illustrations, Chicken Little leads the familiar crew of feathered followers (including Henny Penny, who often is the one to take the acorn on the noggin in other versions) in a comically frantic dash to find the king. But so badly does the decidedly shifty-looking Foxy Loxy bungle the climactic nab that not only do the birds escape, but Foxy is trucked off behind bars while the king calms the kerfuffle by pointing to the perfectly intact sky. The fox does better in the co-published Gingerbread Man, illustrated by Miriam Latimer, as he gobbles down his sugary treat—after which the lonely bakers take all the other hungry animals home for a “fantastic feast” of cakes and pastries. In Rumpelstiltskin, illustrated by Loretta Schauer, though the scraggly-bearded little man only has to spin straw into gold for one night, Alperin mostly sticks to the traditional plotline and ultimately sends him through the floor and into the royal dungeon so that baby Hugo and his parents live happily ever after. The illustrations in all three of these uniform editions share traditional settings, all-white humans, and bright, simple looks. The retellings are aimed at younger audiences, though by cutting the cumulative language in Chicken Little and Gingerbread Man to a minimum, the author drains some of the distinctive tone and character from those folk tales.
No substitutes for more traditional renditions—but not spoiled by the alterations, either. (Picture book/folk tale. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58925-476-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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