A lovely celebration of the grandparent and grandchild relationship.
A grandmother tells a story from her West Indian childhood to her grandson.
Grannie questions her grandson: “I ever tell you about Ti Bolom?” Ti Bolom is a folk character from Grannie’s childhood home of Dominica who terrifies people walking alone at night. She begins a “Little Red Riding Hood”–esque story from her youth, telling her grandson that when she was his age, she was tasked with taking food to an old lady who lived in the jungle. Grannie (then called Christophine) knew it would be dark on the way back and was afraid she’d meet Ti Bolom but braved the journey nonetheless. Binch’s lavishly detailed art pulls readers into the setting and expertly conveys Christophine’s nervous movement. Though Christophine escapes Ti Bolom’s clutches, the curious and brave child returns to the jungle to set a trap for the trickster. Sadly, the ending—both the text and illustration—doesn’t leave readers room to make up their own minds about the validity of Grannie’s tale. However, this does not spoil a story whose characters’ feelings are so vividly rendered readers may recall seeing such expressions in real life. Beautiful visuals aside, it will also make a walloping read-aloud, with its West Indian cadences, repeated onomatopoeia and folk refrain of “ ‘Eh Kwik!’ ‘Eh Kwak!’ ”
A lovely celebration of the grandparent and grandchild relationship. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-56656-980-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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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This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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