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EVERYBODY DUCK

Everybody is the saga of a family who drove from Huntington, Long Island, to Buenos Aires in a amphibious army "duck" at a maximum speed of 25 mph. They began when Mr. Hamilton lost his job, and he decided this was the ideal occasion to make a long coveted trip to South America. Gathering what capital they could, they converted the duck into an amphibious house, and took along a dog and three college boys in addition to their four young daughters. In all they travelled more than a year, sometimes by land and sometimes by sea, but they made it to Buenos Aires in spite of every natural and legal obstacle. Domestic arrangements in the duck were rough, to say the least; and if Mrs. Hamilton sometimes seems too concerned with how they got baths or showers, or what they had to eat (mostly spaghetti), that is understandable. She wisely avoids describing much of what they saw in the way of sights, as her literary powers and those of her collaborator are not great. She is at her best and most interesting in telling about the people they met and talked to in remote parts, as the Central American Islanders who told them: "You are not like other visitors who sometimes come here. We like you because you are friendly and treat us as equals. You hunt and fish with these men and talk with them and let them talk with you. Many people here do not bel you are Americans." A book guaranteed to stir wanderlust, though probably not for traveling in a duck.

Pub Date: June 15, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962

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THE MESS THAT WE MADE

Well-intentioned but likely to overwhelm the intended readers and listeners.

The cadences of a familiar nursery rhyme introduce concerns about ocean garbage and what we, who made the mess, can do to help clean it up.

With the rhyme and meter of “The House That Jack Built,” Lord builds the problem of plastic waste in the oceans from the fish that must swim through it to a netted seal, a trapped turtle, and overflowing landfills before turning to remedies: cleaning beaches and bays, reducing waste, and protesting the use of fishing nets. Two pages of backmatter describe problems in more detail, while a third elaborates potential solutions; suggestions for individual action are provided as well. Blattman’s images begin with a racially diverse group of youngsters in a small boat in the center of a plastic trash gyre. The children, shown at different angles, bob spread by spread over trash-filled waters. To accompany the words, “Look at the mess that we made,” she adds a polluted city skyline and a container ship belching smoke to the scene. Finally, the dismayed young boaters reach a beach where a clean-up is in process. From their little skiff they help scoop up trash, rescue the turtle, and wave protest signs. The message is important, even vital in today’s world, but many caregivers and many environmentalists would eschew this doomful approach as a means of introducing environmental concerns to the early-elementary audience who might be drawn in by the nursery rhyme.

Well-intentioned but likely to overwhelm the intended readers and listeners. (map) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-947277-14-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Flashlight Press

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019

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ABCS OF ART

Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this.

From “Apple” to “Zebra,” an alphabet of images drawn from museum paintings.

In an exhibition that recalls similar, if less parochial, ABCs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (My First ABC, 2009) and several other institutions, Hahn presents a Eurocentric selection of paintings or details to illustrate for each letter a common item or animal—all printed with reasonable clarity and captioned with identifying names, titles, and dates. She then proceeds to saddle each with an inane question (“What sounds do you think this cat is making?” “Where can you find ice?”) and a clumsily written couplet that unnecessarily repeats the artist’s name: “Flowers are plants that blossom and bloom. / Frédéric Bazille painted them filling up this room!” She also sometimes contradicts the visuals, claiming that the horses in a Franz Marc painting entitled “Two Horses, 1912” are ponies, apparently to populate the P page. Moreover, her “X” is an actual X-ray of a Jean-Honoré Fragonard, showing that the artist repainted his subject’s face…interesting but not quite in keeping with the familiar subjects chosen for the other letters.

Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this. (Informational picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5107-4938-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sky Pony Press

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019

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