A charming, unique way to introduce youngsters to great art while providing an important message.
Two brothers, including a future famous artist, follow a mischievous young fox on a journey of discovery through a landscape of famous paintings in this debut children’s book.
In this book’s text, young Vincent Van Gogh and his brother, Theo, are rambling through the countryside, discussing their futures, when they spy a fox who seems to be headed for trouble by eating a famer’s lunch. As they follow the clever animal, intending to keep him out of danger, the fox stays one step ahead of them, jumping from one precarious situation to the next before finally finding a golden field where he understands, “This is where a fox should be.” Macaluso was inspired to write this book by tales he told his son to enliven a museum pamphlet about Van Gogh, and he illustrates it with many of the artist’s best-known paintings, including The Yellow House, The Potato Eaters, and Starry Night. The art is beautifully reproduced in all its vibrant color and attention to detail. Around these evocative works, he builds a simple story in which both the fox and the boys begin to understand the importance of finding one’s place in the world. The well-constructed narrative weaves together the animal’s and the brothers’ revelations, such as, “Sometimes you can’t know if a choice is right unless you try it.” The 34 Van Gogh masterpieces here add depth and immediacy to the text. Adult readers, though, may find the book’s positive message somewhat dampened by their awareness of the grown Vincent’s tortured later life and suicide, which go unmentioned here, and children may regret the lack of any illustrations that actually depict the fox or young brothers. But the book ultimately holds together as a simple, but reflective, work with layers of meaning that can be appreciated by readers of various ages.
A charming, unique way to introduce youngsters to great art while providing an important message.Pub Date: March 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4954-8751-4
Page Count: 36
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In her first children's book, Parton (the country music star) turns one of her songs into a saccharine tale about a girl who is so poor that her mama has to sew her a patchwork coat when the weather turns cold. (Joseph and his coat of many colors are mentioned but never explained.) Despite the girl's love for her coat, she is teased in school, which she counters by trying to explain to her classmates ``that one is only poor/if they choose to be.'' The logic here is as flawed as the grammar, and Sutton's illustrations, while competent, show a well-dressed, happy rural family who look anything but poor. The text is both clumsy and irrelevent (it ends with ``Through life I've remained happy/and good luck is on my side./I have everything that anyone/could ever want from life.'') An apparently autobiographical song that has a hard time standing on its own as a compelling children's story. (Picture book. All ages)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-023413-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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