An enjoyable tale that follows a boy on a stirring quest.
A Tanzanian schoolboy makes a pilgrimage to a mountain.
In this bilingual illustrated children’s book, Rotbart tells the story of Riyaz, a 9-year-old boy attending school in Dar es Salaam, far from his home. During class, Riyaz can often be found staring out the window at Mount Kilimanjaro, a place he longs to visit. One day, he convinces the headmaster he has been invited to spend the weekend with his uncle—who does not exist—and, along with two classmates, sets off for the mountain. The boys quickly discover that Kilimanjaro is farther away than they thought, and their jaunt becomes a multiday trek. They catch a ride from an older man—whose goat rides in the front seat of his truck while the boys pile into the back—and they walk the rest of the way. They spend their nights outside, wondering if wild animals are lurking in the shadows. When they finally reach the mountain, Riyaz is thrilled to accomplish his goal. A tour bus brings them back to school, where Riyaz is shocked to discover that his teachers realized he was missing. He accepts a punishment he knows he deserves, bolstered by the knowledge that the magnificent mountain still calls to him. The English-language story is solidly written by the author and smoothly translated into Spanish by Flores. The corresponding text in English and Spanish appears on facing pages. Farrar’s colorful illustrations add visual interest and deftly bring Riyaz’s world to life. The tale is close to an early reader level of complexity. The plot is engaging, though simple, and although the cover indicates that the work is based on a true story, no information about the real Riyaz is provided, so the audience may be left wondering.
An enjoyable tale that follows a boy on a stirring quest.Pub Date: March 20, 2020
ISBN: 979-8628744895
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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