At his children's request, one of Britain's poet laureates (1813-43) explains ``How does the Water/Come down at Lodore?''—a waterfall at the upper end of Derwentwater, also a favorite haunt of Beatrix Potter's. ``And moreover he tasked me/To tell him in rhyme.'' The indulgent father complies, ``For of rhymes I had store...Because I was Laureate /To them and the King.'' Rhymes indeed, cascading as uninhibited as falling water! Southey begins gently as the water trickles from its source, then accelerates with the precipitous descent: ``And pouring and roaring,/And waving and raving,/and tossing and crossing''—to breathless, and hilarious, length. Meanwhile, Gerstein's paintings are as lovely and as deftly drawn as they are comical; he pictures the poet and his children in a miraculous journey—along with the water, the children sporting with fish, umbrellas, and a paper hat that becomes a boat for the family cat while their father, crowned with laurel and quill in hand, diligently pursues his versifying. Adding to the fun, several pages turn sideways to create tall double spreads. A delightfully merry romp. Glossary. (Poetry/Picture book. 4+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-8037-1025-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
The visuals take the cake, or rather the pie, in this folksy jaunt across the country. As a follow-up to the bestselling How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (1994), Priceman sticks with a more local focus. Here, readers take a nonsensical and roundabout journey in search of items to make a cherry pie. Hail a taxi in New York and go to “the corner of Pennsylvania and Ohio” for coal to make a pie pan, then to a cotton farm in Louisiana to make potholders, to New Mexico for clay to make a mixing bowl and so forth. Strangely, the ingredients for the actual pie are not on the shopping list, just the raw materials to make the cooking equipment. Though informational, the journey is filled with so many random distractions young readers may have a hard time sticking with it. The rustic, lush illustrations, however, are as delicious as a cherry pie right from the oven, and for readers who really want to make one, there’s a simple recipe included. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-375-81255-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
Apolonia “Lina” Flores loves science and mathematical riddles, playing volleyball and collecting extravagant, romantic and lonely socks. But after the sudden death of her mother, her world in Corpus Christi, Texas, makes no sense: Her kind but distant English-teacher father has filled the house with books, and her best friend, Vanessa, has problems of her own. Vanessa’s parents have divorced and her mother spends her days making cascarones, a traditional Mexican good-luck craft made of eggshells and filled with confetti, which become the book’s central metaphor. Lina’s frustration grows as she discovers the vicissitudes of the first love and that happiness can be as fragile as an eggshell. An appealing coming-of-age novel set in a traditional Mexican-American town, in which Hispanic teachers, students and parents celebrate traditional American holidays such as Thanksgiving alongside such traditional Mexican observances as el Día de los Muertos and a Quinceañera. Local idioms of Spanish proverbs—dichos—used as chapter headings enlighten both characters and readers. (glossary) (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-02955-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2009
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