Heavy-handed in its environmental message but still enjoyable.
Kyu-chan, a mischievous Japanese water creature, is the last kappa because of a changing environment.
Folklore, a 19th-century story, an environmental plea, and a pourquoi story about kappamaki, a popular sushi roll, combine to make a clunky, overcrowded picture book that nevertheless still engages readers, especially those seeking a page-by-page bilingual text. Norihei, an ordinary farm boy, meets Kyu, a kappa away from his river too long, and saves his life by splashing him with water. They become fast friends, but Kyu’s family decides to move away because the “area is getting dangerous.” The humans are affecting the environment with their railroads and electricity, a trend that will cause Kyu’s kind to die out. Before leaving, the kappa gives the boy a magic talisman if ever Norihei needs help with water. Norihei grows up, marries, has a child, and starts a restaurant. When his baby falls into a stream, the grown man calls upon his old friend (looking very aged due to human disregard for clean water) for assistance. Norihei names cucumber-filled sushi rolls after him as a reward. “Cultural Notes” provide background information, along with a joke about kappas evolving into “ninja turtles.” The illustrations, mostly bordered rectangles set against handmade paper, combine elements of Japanese wood-carved prints with cartoonlike faces and great detail, showing both traditional agricultural scenes and industrialization.
Heavy-handed in its environmental message but still enjoyable. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-4-8053-1399-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tuttle
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names...
A lad finds a big red dragon in his basement and wisely seeks expert advice about its care and feeding in this epistolary episode.
Young Alexander’s missives (there are no cellphones, nor parents, in sight) are mostly paraphrased rather than shown, but each response comes as a small note folded into a pocket that’s been printed and shaped like an envelope: “Douse it in water right away!” writes panic-stricken fire chief H.Y. Drant; find it a large house or castle, advises B. East of World Animal Welfare; “fatten it up,” suggests Angus Teak the butcher (“Look forward to [eating, scratched out] meeting your dragon”) with sinister relish. Boy and dragon have wonderful times together, but the ultimate realization that dragons really don’t make good pets leads the narrator to follow the written advice of best friend Hillary (“the wisest person I knew”) and set it free. The later arrival of a slightly burned picture postcard in the “post” reassures him that the dragon won’t be forgetting to keep in touch. The human figures in Yarlett’s cartoon illustrations are either white or have their heads cut off at the page top. With the exception of the pasted-on postcard from the dragon at the end, all of the correspondence is removable and thereby losable.
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names add some appeal. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-818-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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