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
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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