A clever format and appealing content provide a joyful glimpse at another culture.
Designed to suggest a scroll created by the Patuas, an artisan community in West Bengal, this title presents a day in the life of the Santhal people—an indigenous Indian people.
The book has a landscape orientation, but the sturdy paper unfolds vertically, one section at a time; when the book is completely “unscrolled,” it can be hung from a grommet. The top portion of each opening shows teeming crowds of brown, orange, and gray bodies moving through their tasks and celebrations against a vibrant red background, from morning until night. Children will enjoy listening to the informative, interactive text—displayed on the restful, white lower spreads—and searching, Where’s Waldo–style, for specific items mentioned in the text: the special chair for the bride, the musicians with drums and horns, the village cow. The yellow border unifies the six foldouts, which navigate from the wedding feast and common space to evening activities and the rainy season. Every object and figure is outlined in black, including the eyes, which express a range of emotions, even within the limits of faces shown in profile. Energy emerges from strong colors, bold patterns, and the diagonals formed by roads and train cars. Close observers will notice some of the same characters moving through the scenes of fishing, cooking, baby-washing, wheat-cleaning, and dancing.
A clever format and appealing content provide a joyful glimpse at another culture. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-93-83145-43-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tara Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
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
A sumptuously illustrated Jazz Age Cinderella story.
In author-illustrator Sheckels’ picture book, a maid at a grand hotel dreams of watching her favorite band perform.
In a world of genteel, anthropomorphized animals, Flora, a ferret, works as a scullery maid in a ritzy, three-story hotel. Scouring and scrubbing in her blue dress and apron, Flora hums along to the music in her heart, hoping that one day she’ll save enough pennies to attend a concert. When her favorite band, the Jazzers, is booked to play at the hotel, Flora desperately wants to watch them perform. The hotel manager, a snobbish fox, turns her away—but then the Jazzers themselves hear her humming outside their room. They’re in need of a vocalist, so they invite her to be their guest soloist, and then to join them permanently. Sheckels tells Flora’s story in straightforward, unrhymed prose, allowing the characters to take center stage without distraction; Flora is easily identifiable as a Cinderella archetype. The lush, hand-painted illustrations are whimsical in the tradition of Beatrix Potter, Inga Moore, and Jill Barklem, capture an Edwardian opulence as well as the grittier circumstances of those whose labors maintained such opulence. The Jazzers, consisting of waistcoated racoon (double bass), skunk (drums), rabbit (piano), and possum (saxophone), evoke a time when free-spirited bohemianism aimed to challenge class barriers.
A sumptuously illustrated Jazz Age Cinderella story.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393187
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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