In this picture-book debut, Serefina is seven years old and comes, her grandmother says, “from a long line of people who are full of imagination.” Serefina envisions all her ancestors dangling from a clothesline as her grandmother reminds her that an imagination is a “blessing, as long as you don’t let it run away with you.” When the grandmother bestows a secret upon Serefina—that her brother, Buster, is to have a surprise birthday party—it takes root, sprouts, and quickly grows so large that the child has difficulty not blurting it out. After she does just that, Serefina’s story to her grandmother about why telling the secret became a life-and-death whopper (the “circumstances” of the title), the older woman is no less loving, apparently resigned to the fact that a child who is “destined for greatness” may need a little poetic license along the way. Priceman’s humorous scenes embellish and extend the wordplay in the text, offering literal visual translations of words and the exaggerated effects of Serefina’s imagination on daily events. Storytelling and the power of words, however, while present as themes, never overwhelm the delicately wrapped core of this piece: the tolerance and unconditional affection between the two main characters. (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-15942-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
A fine counterpoint of wistful ache and be-bop sparkle informs this story about shaking the blues. A girl wakes to an urban morning, her elemental funk reflected in the lonely, sagging laundry line seen across the street from her window. “That’s such a sorrowful line./It’s droppin’ down so lowly/even pigeons pass it by.” Her bubbly sister will not let her mope and tries a little jazzy word music: “Sweet potato!/Rutabaga!/That’ll work fine!/We can play together/with the laundry line!” Her persistence pays off—it’s not long before that piece of rope has been transformed from a study in malaise to a Double-Dutch four-step workout. Davenier’s watercolors are charmingly atmospheric, perfectly suited to Millen’s spirit-raising verse; the two will work magic on any down-at-the-mouth child. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-87497-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-531-33141-5 In what amounts to a novel in poems, a narrator, 11, declares his satisfaction at “Being The Youngest,” introduces his big brother (“God’s Gift to Girls”), who later has a scary brush with death, watches his grandmother plant tulip bulbs “in that dirty confusion/of bulb and knuckle,/knuckle and bulb,” observes several relatives at a huge family reunion, tracks his mother’s pregnancy, and, after his sister is born, finds pleasure in “Being A Middle Child,” too. In easygoing free verse that hides no meanings behind oblique imagery or language, Fletcher (Ordinary Things, 1997, etc.) creates a close-knit, recognizable cast; Krudop’s small pen-and-ink still lifes of food and common household items evoke an air of intimate, everyday domesticity. Children will enjoy reading or listening to these linked episodes of high drama, low comedy, and comforting human contact. (Poetry. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30141-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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