A likely hit with young eco-activists, despite the bland visuals.
A Guatemalan community turns trash to treasure, thanks to a teacher’s “crazy idea.”
It all starts when Seño Laura, taking a break by the frame of a never-finished new school one day, notices that the soda bottle in her hand is the same width as the structural supports. Her principal, the children at the overcrowded local school and the other residents of Granados are quickly enlisted to gather thousands of discarded plastic bottles and stuff them with trash to create “eco-ladrillos” (bricks) and stack them into walls. Much hard work later—and much of it done by energetic young Fernando and other children—the village not only has a fine school, but has been thoroughly cleaned of litter to boot. Better yet, other communities have been inspired by Granados’ example to undertake similar projects of their own. Only some of the figures in Darragh’s very loose ink-and-watercolor illustrations have individualized features, and her pale palette doesn’t really capture the distinctively vibrant look of soda-bottle walls (a photo at the end offers a tantalizing glimpse). Nevertheless, this true story celebrates both the value of teamwork and a triumph of ingenious recycling.
A likely hit with young eco-activists, despite the bland visuals. (afterword) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-88448-371-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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