THE WAR BETWEEN THE VOWELS AND THE CONSONANTS

bookshelf

THE WAR BETWEEN THE VOWELS AND THE CONSONANTS

Name: THE WAR BETWEEN THE VOWELS AND THE CONSONANTS
Author: Priscilla Turner
ISBN: 0-374-38236-0

by Priscilla Turner & illustrated by Whitney Turner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 1996

bookshelf

Only occasional flashes of cleverness illuminate this parable of warring camps uniting in the face of a common threat. The uneasy truce between the aristocratic vowels and the plebian consonants finally breaks down into open warfare, but at the advent of a giant scribble (oxymoronically described as ``zigs and zags with no form at all''), they join together to ``STOP'' the monster and bid it ``GO AWAY.'' `` `I can't fight that,' whimpered the jumble. `Next they'll make paragraphs . . . pages . . . chapters. . . ' '' Sprouting stick limbs and large hats, the letters, uppercase if adult, lowercase when young, swarm antlike across cleanly drawn backdrops. ``Just think what we can accomplish together,'' enthuses the Supreme Command to the Commander in Chief. ``The poems! The plays! Our memoirs!'' Actually, even careless readers will notice that both sides have been using each other right along in speech, an evidently unintended paradox. Next to books like Eve Merriam's Fighting Words (1992) or Bill Martin and John Archambault's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), the language play here seems clumsy. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 1996

ISBN: 0-374-38236-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

bookshelf

KANGAROO AND CRICKET

by Lorianne Siomades ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

bookshelf

Siomades (A Place to Bloom, 1997, etc.) introduces easy animal actions and identification with a simple text and with a cut-paper collage technique that is akin to the work of Eric Carle. Every spread displays two brightly colored, cleanly shaped animals whose sizes are usually in direct contrast, while their actions and attributes are similar. “Kangaroo and cricket. . . both can jump. Camel and turtle. . . both have a hump.” Fish and hippo swim, polar bear and penguin slide, dog and squirrel bury things. On the last page, an unseen narrator exclaims, “I have something in common with everyone.” That narrator may be an unseen preschooler, who can, indeed, slide, swim, jump, and more; or it may be the tiny worm inching through the book, imitating and interpreting every action. Cheerful colors and handsome design make for a kid-friendly concept book. (Picture book. 2-5)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 1-56397-780-X

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Boyds Mills

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
KATY DID IT!
by Lorianne Siomades & illustrated by Lorianne Siomades

- BOOK REVIEW
WHERE WILD BABIES SLEEP
by Ann Purmell & illustrated by Lorianne Siomades

- BOOK REVIEW
CUCKOO CAN’T FIND YOU
by Lorianne Siomades & illustrated by Lorianne Siomades

bookshelf

PATTY'S PUMPKIN PATCH

by Teri Sloat ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

bookshelf

Doggerel rhymes and brightly colored acrylic paintings celebrate the birds, insects, and animals that visit Patty’s pumpkin patch from seeding time to harvest, in this story from Sloat (Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round, p. 306, etc.). A large illustration appears with a rhyming couplet, while an alphabet of creatures runs along the bottom margins with an accompanying thumbnail drawings, from A for “ant” to Z for “zebra butterfly.” The book has the look of a picture book from the 1950s, filled with generic animals, flora more decorative than authentic, and Patty in her red Keds and granny glasses. Still, the cycle of the growing season, pumpkins in eye-popping orange, and the abundant wildlife on every page will appeal to children. (Picture book. 4-7)