Oversized pages well-stocked with Parker’s graceful women and burly, plain-featured men, this latest entry in Platt’s Diary series brings second-century CE Rome to bustling life. Captured by pirates, young Iliona records how she is purchased as a slave for the household of a Senator while her little brother is dispatched as a laborer to a country estate. Though she alludes to rough treatment, she never suffers or encounters much of it; instead, she accompanies her mistress to the public baths, cares for a new baby, sees a bit of gladiatorial combat, witnesses a formal triumph for the Emperor Trajan, serves at a banquet, recounts small incidents and routines of daily life and ultimately wins freedom for herself and her brother. Aside from being nearly free of dirt, disease and violence, her narrative is laced with period detail, and the author departs from the diary format for several added-value spreads on Roman armies, society and architecture. Readers overwhelmed by the teeming scenes in Stephen Biesty’s Rome in Spectacular Cross-Section (2003, written by Andrew Solway) will enjoy this lighter-weight journey into the past. (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3480-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
From Hughes (Enchantment in the Garden, 1997, etc.), a WWII story with big ambitions—many of them realized’set out in the pages of an unusually long picture book. Lenny Levi lives in London with his mother during the Blitz, cherishing the letters from his father at the front, and the medal of the lion and the unicorn his father gave him. When Lenny is evacuated to the country, he finds himself at a huge old manor with three little girls, the lady of the house, and a few servants. He is lonely, teased at school and at home for not eating bacon and for bedwetting, but makes a friend of the young man with one leg he meets in the secret garden on the estate. The garden, thick with roses, also holds a beautiful statue of a unicorn like the one on his medal. As Lenny’s loneliness and fear spiral out of control, a night vision of the unicorn brings him back; his mother comes to take them both to his aunt in Wales, where his father will join them. The storyline, while straightforward, hints at difficult subjects—religious differences, amputees, separation, family disruptions, the terror of bombing, and more—which are then given only cursory treatment. The pictures are splendid: luminous, full-bodied watercolors that capture the horror of London burning, the glory of the countryside, and mists of dreams. It may be difficult for this to find its audience, but children too young for Michelle Magorian’s Good Night, Mr. Tom (1986) might be captured. (Picture book. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2555-6
Page Count: 60
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A book of the basic teachings of Buddha, presented through a collection of six classic, simple tales. When a monkey takes refuge from a monsoon in a cave, he happens upon a group of bickering animals—a monkey, lion, turtle, jackal, and dove. Before the fighting becomes too fierce, a small statue of Buddha begins to glow in the darkest corner. To pass the time—and to stop the fighting—wise Buddha spins enlightening stories of tolerance, endurance, sagacity, truthfulness, kindness, and clarity. Buddha recounts his past lives in many forms—from monkey to pigeon to willow tree—to his captive listeners. Such straightforward yet profound tales combine with the art and design for an example of bookmaking that is aesthetically pleasing in every way. Color-washed linoprints cleverly distinguish the stories from the black-and-white narrative frame, while an informative afterword offers brief background detail about Buddha and these six “birth stories” known as Jatakas. (Picture book/folklore. 4-7)
Pub Date: April 8, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-33548-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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