This captivating interpretation creates a remarkable partner for Noah, who uses her special talent in a memorable way....
The animals march along two by two in most Noah’s Ark stories, but Noah’s partner is often missing altogether. In this unusual interpretation of one of the most popular Bible stories, it’s Noah’s wife who is the star as she sings the arkful of animals to sleep.
The story begins with the great storm and flood waters surrounding the ark at night. The animals “pace and roar and growl,” and Noah has nightmares, but his wife, Naamah, sings all night long, soothing and petting the restless animals. In an intriguing author’s note, Bartoletti explains the origins of the name Naamah as well as the Arabic poetic form used as the text’s structure. This format uses couplets that all end with the same word, with each ending word preceded by a rhyming word. “She sings for moon to fill the night; / She sings for stars to thrill the night.” The text has a lovely, soothing effect, with the repeated ending words and a lilting cadence that effectively suggests a comforting lullaby. Meade’s watercolor collage illustrations match the dramatic pacing of the text with varied perspectives and humorous views of the sleeping (or prowling) animals. Several striking spreads show Naamah and a pair of the largest animals in stark silhouette shapes against a speckled gray background that suggests the night sky.
This captivating interpretation creates a remarkable partner for Noah, who uses her special talent in a memorable way. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4242-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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