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
Mixed-race children certainly deserve mirror books, but they also deserve excellent text and illustrations. This one misses...
This tan-skinned, freckle-faced narrator extols her own virtues while describing the challenges of being of mixed race.
Protagonist Lilly appears on the cover, and her voluminous curly, twirly hair fills the image. Throughout the rhyming narrative, accompanied by cartoonish digital illustrations, Lilly brags on her dark skin (that isn’t very), “frizzy, wild” hair, eyebrows, intellect, and more. Her five friends present black, Asian, white (one blonde, one redheaded), and brown (this last uses a wheelchair). This array smacks of tokenism, since the protagonist focuses only on self-promotion, leaving no room for the friends’ character development. Lilly describes how hurtful racial microaggressions can be by recalling questions others ask her like “What are you?” She remains resilient and says that even though her skin and hair make her different, “the way that I look / Is not all I’m about.” But she spends so much time talking about her appearance that this may be hard for readers to believe. The rhyming verse that conveys her self-celebration is often clumsy and forced, resulting in a poorly written, plotless story for which the internal illustrations fall far short of the quality of the cover image.
Mixed-race children certainly deserve mirror books, but they also deserve excellent text and illustrations. This one misses the mark on both counts. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63233-170-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eifrig
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A tall-tale introduction to the ``King of the Keelboatmen,'' from the time he ran away from home at the age of two days to his literally explosive confrontation with steamboat captain Hilton B. Blathersby. The historical Fink was a cruel man who came to a violent end, but Kellogg depicts him as a friendly-looking, fun-loving youth; indeed, nearly all of the keelboatmen here- -black, white, old, and young—are smiling, clean-cut types, rather at odds with their usual roughneck image. Though Fink spends much of his time wrestling men or bears, Kellogg's description of him seems bland in comparison to his glowing, energetic illustrations, and less heroic than his other legendary figures. (Picture book/Folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1992
ISBN: 0-688-07003-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992
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