An engaging story for young readers eager to look at the world with an artist’s eye.
A reluctant schoolboy is sent to study the works of Edgar Degas at the fictional Museum of Fine Art in Isaacson’s debut, which features full-color reproductions.
When Jack Hughes, a skateboard enthusiast, arrives at school one morning, his teacher sends him off to the city’s art museum in a bid to get the young boy to improve his essay writing. With its “polished ivory marble floors” and a “humorless, uniformed man” standing around, the museum intimidates the young lad. The 13 Degas paintings—featuring “[s]cenes of girls in frilly ballet tutus,” “a plump lady singing in an outrageous red dress” and “a shopping scene in a lady’s hat shop”—don’t do much to raise his spirits. At first, this may not seem to be the most exciting premise, yet Isaacson’s attempt to make fine art exciting in the form of a story for children is nevertheless a satisfying examination of Edgar Degas’ artwork, as well as a painting by Frederic Remington, which “[m]agnetically” pulls Jack in. (Not that it’s a wholly original idea; readers might be reminded in particular of James Mayhew’s Katie series.) Degas, who had a lifelong love of music and opera, acquired a reputation as a painter of dancers. Together with Jack, readers are able to study the paintings in impressive detail, while the author’s enthusiasm becomes infectious as the book looks deeper into 19th-century rooms and parlors; eventually, the voice of one of the painting’s subjects also discusses the various paintings with Jack. With its fairly wordy text and analyses of art, this book might not sit easily on picture-book shelves, but it will appeal to a relatively older audience looking for a quirky intro to Degas’ place in impressionism.
An engaging story for young readers eager to look at the world with an artist’s eye.Pub Date: May 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-9844938-4-5
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Lexingford Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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