Paying tribute to boats and ships—and all who have taken them out onto wide blue waters—Sturges pairs a series of lyric verses to Laroche’s carefully detailed, painted-paper collages. From a frail looking birch canoe to an immense modern cruise ship (the latter seen in engrossing cutaway), from a Viking Drakar rowed by a bearded, singing crew to the Savannah, first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic and return, the vessels present an arresting array of forms and sizes. But this is more than a simple sail-and-steam gallery; Sturges also commemorates whalers and cod fishermen (and the cod themselves), Magellan, who “sailed on to misfortune and fame,” busy Puget Sound, blind boatbuilder John Herreshoff and the profound rewards of drifting silently: “Be still. / Ignore the distant sounds of Man and thunder. / Look deep into the sea. / Be filled with wonder.” A poetic companion for the likes of Patrick O’Brien’s The Great Ships (2001). (Poetry. 8-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-23464-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
All aboooooard!
Mbalia takes the legacy of Pullman porters as inspiration for his latest fantasy world rooted in Black lore and traditions in this series opener.
Twelve-year-old Jax Freeman is an unwilling transplant to Chicago, sent away from his Raleigh, North Carolina, home by his parents after an incident lands him in the juvenile justice system. Just about as soon as he descends from the train, the weirdness starts: Inanimate objects speak to him, a strange old woman tells him his ancestors need him, and a terrifying creature tries to steal his skin. The strangeness keeps building, from the inspirational signs at his grandmother’s house that keep changing their messages to the class in…magic?…at DuSable Middle School. And what’s with the peculiar reactions he gets whenever people learn his surname? Pretty soon Jax is riding a magic train called the Shriek, charged with a mission to heal a feud among the five magical summoning families of Chicago—a mission that killed his great-great-grandfather. Jax spends most of the novel in a state of frustration as he tries to understand this new world, and readers may sympathize as they wait with him for other characters to dole out information. Mbalia has so much fun developing the world’s rules and inhabitants, though, that readers will probably not mind the adventure’s bagginess. Jax has a digressive narrative style that runs to broad comedy, but it’s his fundamental decency that really shines.
All aboooooard! (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781368064736
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Freedom Fire/Disney
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A successful marriage of art and poetry.
Will Chambers wrestles with fat stigma, self-loathing, disordered eating, and the ultimate desire to be accepted.
Lerner’s illustrated verse novel opens on Will’s fourth grade year. It’s the first time the word fat is hurled at him as an insult, the first time he understands that the rest of the world sees something wrong with his body. Three years later, shame-filled Will is eating less and less. It’s Markus, his kind, cool skateboarder friend, who helps Will when he eventually breaks and who is there as he works on piecing himself back together. Lerner uses the format to great effect, as the staccato lines of broken verse are well matched to Will’s honest, disjointed inner thoughts. The setup makes for an effective portrayal of Will’s painful mental battles. The black-and-white illustrations mostly depict Markus; Will’s crush, Jules, a skinny girl; and a prickly, monsterlike version of how Will sees himself. Peppered throughout are balls of black scribbles representing Will’s anxiety, fears, and the anger he directs at himself. The diary feel adds to readers’ understanding of Will. Lerner writes very affecting scenes that will resonate with some readers and provide insight for others, shedding powerful light on boys’ body image struggles. All characters appear White.
A successful marriage of art and poetry. (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781665905152
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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