Ruzzier offers a bit of wishful thinking in this peace-mongering tale of an undersized giant and an oversized dwarf joining forces to defuse a war between their peoples. Ignored by his towering neighbors, lonely Angelino di Grandi leaves home. After a protracted but uneventful journey, he meets Osvaldo Curti, an ostracized dwarf who is an exact twin. When the two rush into the conflict, they’re mistaken for each other—a circumstance that prompts both sides to cease hostilities, since they can’t tell each other apart with certainty. Would that it were so simple. Dressed, like all the figures here, in loincloths but sporting single curls of hair on large, oblate heads, Angelino and Osvaldo make such a strange-looking twosome that young readers may be distracted from the story’s earnestly delivered point. Years later, the two forget who is the dwarf, and who the giant—and that casually tossed-in idea is more likely to stimulate thought and discussion than the main plot. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-06-052951-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2004
Carlson brings her vibrant brand of encouragement to bear on the first day of kindergarten. Henry, a mouse, is rip-roaring ready to attend school; his mother has to restrain him from racing out the door before he has washed and brushed, had breakfast, and loaded his backpack. As he and his mother walk to school, Henry bubbles over with questions and guesses about the day’s activities. When they arrive, however, Henry has a typical change of heart: “I want to go home.” With some heartening words from his teacher, Henry goes forth and engages the forces of trepidation and change, not as a superhero, but as one of the meek who knows he has to get on with it. Carlson’s hero is just goofy enough to make her message suspicious; she could be telling readers that if he can do it, so can they. This book will make them relish the chance. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-670-88378-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
Newcomer Santoro’s story of the ice cream truck that pined for a more important role in life suffers from a premise that’s well-worn and still fraying—the person or object that longs to be something “more” in life, only to find out that his or its lot in life is enough, after all. Isaac the ice cream truck envies all the bigger, larger, more important vehicles he encounters (the big wheels are depicted as a rude lot, sullen, surly, and snarling, hardly a group to excite much envy) in a day, most of all the fire trucks and their worthy occupants. When Isaac gets that predictable boost to his self-image—he serves up ice cream to over-heated firefighters after a big blaze—it comes as an unmistakable putdown to the picture-book audience: the children who cherished Isaac—“They would gather around him, laughing and happy”—weren’t reason enough for him to be contented. Santoro equips the tale with a tune of Isaac’s very own, and retro scenes in tropical-hued colored pencil that deftly convey the speed of the trucks with skating, skewed angles. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5296-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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