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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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