Willie starts out at dawn for a solo raft ride on the Wallawatchee River. She has barely lowered herself on to the tiny craft when a parade of relatives begins. Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins all bring her items they think she will need on her short trip. From a lumpy sack of apples to a camp stove complete with a four-pound pot of beans, each helpful item takes up more space and weighs down the raft until Cousin Clyde himself hops on and sinks everything into the Wallawatchee. Once she’s afloat again, Willie thanks everyone but tells them all she needs from them is their hugs, their kisses, and their best wishes. Only then is she able to set out with her two silent duck buddies and her backpack for her planned day. Wilson (George Hogglesberry: Grade School Alien, 2002, etc.) tells Willie’s story with breezy prose dotted and peppered with mountain slang and silly similes. Gramma Em’s watermelon is “heavier than a full-grown raccoon in a washtub” and Cousin Clyde jumps through the air “like a cow riding a cannonball.” Cecil’s (Ugly Princess and the Wise Fool, not reviewed, etc.) sunny, acrylic gouache illustrations feature a happy, clean, country family, all but Willie sharing the same oversized nose. The two work well together. A good tale of a spunky girl for independent or group reading. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-8050-6787-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests.
A lonely prince gains a friend for a quest to find a missing jewel.
Prince Lucas of Wrenly has everything a boy could possibly want—except a friend. His father has forbidden him to play with the village children for reasons of propriety. Adventure-seeking Lucas acquires peasant clothes to masquerade as a commoner and make friends, but he is caught out. His mother, the queen, persuades the king to allow him one friend: Clara, the daughter of her personal dressmaker. When the queen’s prized emerald pendant goes missing, Lucas and Clara set off to find it. They follow the jewel as it changes hands, interviewing each temporary owner. Their adventure cleverly introduces the series’ world and peoples, taking the children to the fairy island of Primlox, the trolls’ home of Burth, the wizard island of Hobsgrove and finally Mermaid’s Cove. By befriending the mermaids, Lucas and Clara finally recover the jewel. In thanks, the king gives Clara a horse of her own so that she may ride with Lucas on their future adventures. The third-person narration is generally unobtrusive, allowing the characters to take center stage. The charming, medieval-flavored illustrations set the fairy-tale scene and take up enough page space that new and reluctant readers won’t be overwhelmed by text.
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9691-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A white youth from Ohio, Sheldon Russell Curtis (Say), and a black youth from Georgia, Pinkus Aylee (Pink), meet as young soldiers with the Union army. Pink finds Say wounded in the leg after a battle and brings him home with him. Pink's mother, Moe Moe Bay, cares for the boys while Say recuperates, feeding and comforting them and banishing the war for a time. Whereas Pink is eager to go back and fight against "the sickness" that is slavery, Say is afraid to return to his unit. But when he sees Moe Moe Bay die at the hands of marauders, he understands the need to return. Pink and Say are captured by Confederate soldiers and brought to the notorious Andersonville prison camp. Say is released months later, ill and undernourished, but Pink is never released, and Polacco reports that he was hanged that very first day because he was black. Polacco (Babushka Baba Yaga, 1993, etc; My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, above) tells this story, which was passed down for generations in her family (Say was her great-great-grandfather), carefully and without melodrama so that it speaks for itself. The stunning illustrations — reminiscent of the German expressionist Egon Shiele in their use of color and form — are completely heartbreaking. A spectacular achievement. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4- 8)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-399-22671-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
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