To her series of retellings (The Egyptian Cinderella, 1989; The Korean Cinderella, 1993) Climo adds this Irish version featuring a large-footed male character sometimes called Billy Beg and here named Becan. The magical being that aids the cinderlad is a speckled bull that, like the fish in the Chinese variant, Yeh- Shen, dies, leaving Becan with its tail as a weapon of extraordinary power. Becan wins the heart of Princess Finola by rescuing her from a sea serpent in a scene reminiscent of the story of Perseus and Andromeda; the princess traces him by means of his giant-sized boot; they live happily ever after. The sturdy, forthright telling is accompanied by pretty, predominantly blue, green, and purple paintings that show simply drawn human figures surrounded by highly detailed animals and landscape. Thousands of brush strokes render flower-spangled turf, the downy feathers of geese and seabirds, and the shaggy hides of cattle, horses, and donkeys. With an author's note on sources, this is a good addition to folklore collections and a must for collectors of Cinderella variants. (Picture book/folklore. 5-10)
Pub Date: April 30, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-024396-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1996
Funny and provocative.
A tooth-fairy mogul wrote the manual, but even the expert can be caught off guard.
Tallulah, CEO of Teeth Titans Inc., gives readers a sneak peek into her glamorous life. The wry narrative mimics the tone of many an inspirational biography, informing readers that Tallulah works hard to strike “a healthy balance between the three Ps: passion, purpose, and what pays.” From yoga to museum visits, Tallulah seems to have a full schedule, but she still makes time to hire and train tooth fairies for the entire world. Expert Tallulah has all the answers—or so she thinks until the night she gets a surprise from a little boy. Ballard has lost his tooth—literally—and leaves an explanatory note under his pillow in place of the missing item. This triggers an emergency board meeting that features remarkably realistic dialogue. Tom, a white man and the only board member who is not a woman of color, wears an #AllFairiesMatter T-shirt; his off-topic complaint about the lack of diversity makes an opening for important conversations with young readers. Tallulah is black and sports a voluminous purple Afro; Tom is the sole white character. Details in both Pizzoli’s text (Tallulah’s also the founder of the National Association for the Appreciation and Care of Primary Teeth, or NAACP-T) and Fabiani’s matte illustrations (a series of enormous, Warhol-like prints of Tallulah adorns her walls) will set adult readers chuckling.
Funny and provocative. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30919-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When Hades sees Persephone gathering flowers in a field, he carries her off to the underworld to be his queen. Her mother Demeter is so distraught that she curses Earth with endless winter. With intervention from Zeus and other gods, Persephone is found and rejoins her mother. But she ate pomegranate seeds while in the underworld and so must spend three months each year with Hades, during which time winter occurs above ground. This pourquoi tale from ancient Greek mythology has everything to recommend it to modern readers. Clayton employs vivid imagery, powerful emotions and loads of action to convey adventure, grief, love, drama and the circle of life. Dialogue is crisp and accessible, while retaining just a hint of the formality expected of gods and goddesses. Lee’s imaginative illustrations, detailed in glowing earth tones and sweeping across double-page spreads, complement the action. In depicting the characters, she borrows features from Greek statues but manages to give them humanity. A beautiful retelling of an enduring myth. (Picture book/mythology. 7-10)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5349-3
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
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