Although an additional purchase for most purposes, this might have a place in a religious school or for a family of faith.
Bigger houses, more important titles: sounds like the wishes of many of today’s professionals and entrepreneurs.
But wait! This is an old tale of envy. This version of “The Fisherman and His Wife” hews closely to the original, although some significant (and unattributed) changes have been made. Here Isabel, the wife, asks to be a queen (not a king), and her wish to be pope (perhaps to smooth out the original’s overtly Christian content) is elided, the text jumping straight to her even more outrageous desire to be God. When the couple is reduced to living under an “old broken pot” once again (like a chamber pot, taken from the German “pissputt”), Isabel realizes that luxury and palaces never made her content, again deviating from the original. She moralizes: “God on Earth lived a simple life full of love and kindness, and I’m happy to live like that too.” The story is smoothly told, with fisherman Thomas’ dialogue to the fish introduced in rhyming verse. The sea roils in a wilder and wilder manner as the fish grows angrier and angrier with Isabel’s demands. The delicate paintings often have an ethereal, abstract quality, as in the picture of Isabel on an emperor’s golden throne, with a long flight of steps leading up to an indistinct, richly dressed seated figure. Poor Thomas sits at the bottom, turned away from her, holding his head, sad and scared, when she makes her last imperious request. Thomas and Isabel both present white.
Although an additional purchase for most purposes, this might have a place in a religious school or for a family of faith. (Picture book/fairy tale. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-78250-524-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children.
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format.
Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.”
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-742-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
