A fine choice for reading aloud or alone, rich in creatures more magical than frightening.
Lively yarn-spinning, delightful illustrations, and handsome bookmaking again make a winning combination in this follow-up to the creators’ An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales (2012).
Breslin opens with a tale of St. Columba and the Loch Ness monster and closes with an encounter between a clever fox and a cleverer young girl—adversaries who previously met, with a similar result, in the other collection’s closer. In between, she dishes up fluently retold versions of tales featuring a child selkie, mermen, and Wee Folk; a Robert Louis Stevenson cameo; Thomas the Rhymer’s sojourn with the queen of Faeryland; and how Finn MacCool built the Giant’s Causeway in order to fight the Scots giant Benandonner. With the exception of a skinless Nuckelavee that unwisely tangles with an old wise woman and is in any case left unseen, the monsters here are mostly benign sorts—even the draconic Island Beast snoozes peacefully in its only appearance and is rendered in such warm red and golden tones that it seems more decorative than dangerous. Leiper likewise supplies all 11 tales with bright illustrations that generally run evocatively along the broad margins and off the edges of the pages, offering not scenes of violence but idyllic glimpses of finely modeled small animals and objects, appealingly distracted figures in historical dress, and grassy Scottish hills.
A fine choice for reading aloud or alone, rich in creatures more magical than frightening. (glossary) (Folk tales. 7-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-7825-0195-4
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
The potential strength of this presentation would be as a read-aloud to grade-schoolers, who would, no doubt, enjoy the...
Two imaginative 10-year-old boys embark on a disbelief-suspending adventure in this second of a series.
Sir Seth, Sir Ollie and Seth’s “steed,” Shasta (his dog in a realer world), discover Puddlewater Pond is draining down into a netherworld, the Queendom of Claire, populated by short Khaboumians, the evil ogre Ooz, his tree-eating dinosaur and some almost-flying umbies. These creatures are coming into conflict, creating confusion, consternation and complete chaos. Most of the narrative consists of frequent alliteration, puns and embedded rhyming words that don’t scan into poetry. “Sir Ollie stuttered with surprise, his eyes the size of banana cream pies,” for example. A certain amount of this is amusing; after several pages, it simply becomes unbecomingly uneven, creating a nearly noxious narrative. Some of the concepts are strangely Seuss-like: The Umbies travel in pairs, under-umbies under over-umbies that use their apparently otherwise useless wings to provide shade for their under-umbies. Chuggamugga bugs, like mugs with legs, carry water for wayward desert wanderers. While the pace of the plot careens, its superficiality is strangely startling. Cartoonish black-and-white illustrations add an amusing aura to a plethora of pages.
The potential strength of this presentation would be as a read-aloud to grade-schoolers, who would, no doubt, enjoy the difficulties the adult reader would encounter, wading through all the wacky words. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-926818-94-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Jackal and Ibis are two (amusingly) low-life characters in ancient Egypt. Caught stealing, they are offered the chance to...
Detailed paintings accompanied by panels of hieroglyphics grace a slim plot and a perplexing puzzle.
Jackal and Ibis are two (amusingly) low-life characters in ancient Egypt. Caught stealing, they are offered the chance to avoid punishment by retrieving a jeweled fish for the Cat Pharaoh. Not surprisingly, given that they have described themselves as “poor and stupid thieves,” they manage to muff this opportunity when they accidentally allow the golden fish to make contact with water—the very thing they had been warned against. Magically coming to life, the fish swims away, condemning them to spend the rest of their lives searching for it. Readers are invited to help by identifying the lost fish using a series of movable pages embedded in the back cover. Sliding each of the three circles creates fish of varying patterns. Discovering the correct pattern and reporting it to the author’s website will bring an unspecified reward. As always, Base’s illustrations are appealing and elaborate. An alphabetical key that accompanies the hieroglyphics provides access to additional content. Endpapers appear to be textured stone. Jackal and Ibis have expressive eyes that enhance the humor and effectively convey their emotions, while the snappish Crocodile Prince’s fierce fangs seem sharp enough to pierce the page.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0086-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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