An ecological cautionary tale that perhaps errs a little too much on the side of caution
A school of alewives migrates from the ocean to an inland lake to spawn.
Led by Pesca, the river herrings head north, swimming in parallel with the Canada geese. They pass a pod of porpoises and a humpback whale before turning toward the coast. They are spotted by a boy out in a rowboat with his father, who tells his son about the old alewife fishery, now moribund due to plummeting numbers. Once in a stream, Pesca and her school evade an eagle and a heron, and they navigate a beaver dam before pulling up short where a road has been constructed over the stream; the culvert through which the stream now flows is too high for the fish to reach. Happily, the boy and his father spot them and are able to use buckets to lift the fish over the road and into the lake. Raye’s soft, bright paintings depict the journey, varying perspective to give readers a sense of scale and drama, as with an intense close-up of the eagle’s talons. Perhaps unintentionally, the story leaves readers with a real conundrum: Even the most optimistic are likely to feel that trusting in passersby with buckets to save a fishery bodes ill for its long-term survival. An author’s note provides background on both alewives and anadromous fish, but it offers only faint hope.
An ecological cautionary tale that perhaps errs a little too much on the side of caution . (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-88448-354-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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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