A free-spirited, warmly nostalgic vision.
This companion volume to Rooster Summer (2018) celebrates the pivotal role a neighborhood grocery store plays in the lives of a brother and sister.
Speaking in verse and using a lively present-tense, first-person plural voice chock-full of sensory vocabulary, the two siblings “crackle-rackle / through the fall leaves” to Mr. Stanstones’ store. There, friendly clerk Bert, who, with “his long apron fluttering / like a huge, crazy, scary bird,” is wont to spring out of the walk-in freezer, playfully surprises them. One memorable day Bert takes them into that big freezer, where sausages dangle like “fat party streamers.” Spying “gleaming high” jars filled with enormous cookies, the siblings “think their yums / would fill our tums.” They “cuddle, cat-chat” with Toby Cat, who lives in the storeroom and surprises them with a “trick and treat” mouse on Halloween. The siblings earn coins for their piggy banks by dusting, stacking cans, “heaping mountain rows” of vegetables, polishing glass (including those cookie jars), and collecting pop bottles. They borrow comic books from the “creaky spin-about racks.” When big superstores force the corner shop to close, Mr. Stanstones gives the siblings the cookie jars. Peppered with vibrant verbal images of a bygone era, bubbly, kid-friendly verses are reinforced by cheery, humorous opaque paint-and–colored-pencil illustrations showing the brother and sister freely roaming their beloved corner store and urban neighborhood. Children, clerks, and shopkeepers are white; the neighborhood is diverse.
A free-spirited, warmly nostalgic vision. (Poetry. 6-9)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77306-216-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
This oversized volume won’t fit on a bookshelf; leave it open on a table to display the art.
Poems celebrate 12 animals that might be found in American backyards.
This collection complements Held and Kim's The Yard Critters (2011), which similarly invites young readers to think about beings that share their world. From ladybugs to chipmunks, each double-page spread features a different creature, one that may be familiar from storybooks, if not from personal experience. In a few short stanzas, the poet describes both attributes and habits. Of the porcupine: “It’s a thrill / to see this / walking quill / cushion // strolling uphill / from the cellar / where he’s built / a den down under.” “So much / does Nature / love her, / Shrew // can birth / ten litters / per year— / whew!” There’s even a riddle: “Flying from Belize to bless our summer, / this ingenious gem is called the ———.” (The word “hummer” appears in a later poem, “Field Mouse.”) Not all the ideas are important or even accurate; this is not an informational book. Nor are these your usual children’s poems. The vocabulary is sophisticated. The rhymes and sound patterns are complex and vary unpredictably. With only 12 poems, this title may seem slight. What adds value are Kim’s intriguing collage illustrations, creating stylized but recognizable animal images set on generous white space with elements crossing the gutter to lead eyes to the text.
This oversized volume won’t fit on a bookshelf; leave it open on a table to display the art. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-916754-26-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Filsinger & Co.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
From the booming paigu to the delicate strings of the ruan, the lutelike pipa and the yangqin, or hammered “butterfly harp,”...
Thirteen young musicians of diverse ethnic background ready themselves to play their traditional Chinese instruments on stage in this informative and gracefully illustrated twin debut.
Jiang, a composer, presents upbeat, free-verse poems in the children’s voices about their instruments or their mental states: “When I tune my erhu, / I only need to listen to / Two strings. So easy!” These are paired to sidebar historical and descriptive notes, associated legends and characterizations of the distinctive sounds each instrument makes. Chu’s illustrations are rendered in clearly drawn lines and soft, harmonious colors. They depict each musician in turn playing his or her instrument in rehearsals or solo performances with, often, imagined natural landscapes, animals or mythical beasts floating behind. The preparation culminates in a concert seen in an elevated view of orchestra and audience, followed by a final lineup to take a bow beneath a closing note on characteristics of classical Chinese music.
From the booming paigu to the delicate strings of the ruan, the lutelike pipa and the yangqin, or hammered “butterfly harp,” a lively medley that will expand the musical boundaries of most young audiences. (bibliography) (Informational picture book/poetry. 6-9)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-885008-50-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
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