A sweet family story.
A coal-mining pit pony takes to the Traveling life.
Polonius works and lives day in and day out underground save for a two-week stint aboveground when the mines shut down. Seeing horses grazing untethered and unfenced with a Traveling family, Polonius takes his chance and escapes, following them to their next camp. Though initially Grandad is unwilling to take him, Lucretia persuades him that Polonius will “be useful somehow.” Indeed, though he’s more a well-loved pet than anything else, one day he proves his mettle by guiding draft horses Cushy and Thor through a dense fog so the family can get its wares to the port for shipping. Romani storyteller O’Neill gives readers a classic story of an undersized hero who makes good. His Traveler family is a tightknit, loving group that works hard even as it pursues an itinerant life. The sparing introduction of dialect further cements the family’s cultural specificity; while outsider readers may not know exactly what Daddo means when he tells the family they’ll “set off early and stop halfway for some habben and a besh,” the general concept is clear (and an unobtrusive opening glossary enlightens them fully). The equines’ ability to talk to one another further underscores their importance within the culture. Thomas’ delicate illustrations depict an early-20th-century industrializing English countryside; Lucretia and her family display a range of skin tones from pale to brown.
A sweet family story. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-78628-186-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.
Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.
Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests.
A lonely prince gains a friend for a quest to find a missing jewel.
Prince Lucas of Wrenly has everything a boy could possibly want—except a friend. His father has forbidden him to play with the village children for reasons of propriety. Adventure-seeking Lucas acquires peasant clothes to masquerade as a commoner and make friends, but he is caught out. His mother, the queen, persuades the king to allow him one friend: Clara, the daughter of her personal dressmaker. When the queen’s prized emerald pendant goes missing, Lucas and Clara set off to find it. They follow the jewel as it changes hands, interviewing each temporary owner. Their adventure cleverly introduces the series’ world and peoples, taking the children to the fairy island of Primlox, the trolls’ home of Burth, the wizard island of Hobsgrove and finally Mermaid’s Cove. By befriending the mermaids, Lucas and Clara finally recover the jewel. In thanks, the king gives Clara a horse of her own so that she may ride with Lucas on their future adventures. The third-person narration is generally unobtrusive, allowing the characters to take center stage. The charming, medieval-flavored illustrations set the fairy-tale scene and take up enough page space that new and reluctant readers won’t be overwhelmed by text.
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9691-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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