Compestine offers a simple introduction to the Chinese New Year in the form of an alphabet book, but the information provided is slight. “V is for Veneration” is explained with the enigmatic line, “Families venerate their ancestors at New Year’s.” Not a very meaningful sentence, though the illustration showing a family bowing in front of an altar offers clues. The jewel-like paintings of a traditional Chinese family (complete with an incongruous TV and an electric fan) celebrating the holiday by donning new clothes, getting haircuts, making paper cuts, bringing oranges to friends and eating ceremonial foods are engaging. A playful yellow cat cavorts with a mouse throughout, adding more child appeal. There is another, more subtle design element: The artist has used four different calligraphic styles to create backgrounds on each page. An author’s note offers a little more explanation of the festival, but this visual treat should be supplemented by something more substantial. A recipe for dumplings and a Chinese Zodiac chart are included. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8234-1887-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A girl with a passion for pink discovers that the monochromatic life may not be a bed of roses after all. Much like Roald Dahl’s Violet, this little girl doesn’t know when to say enough, as she over-indulges in the pinker-than-pink cupcakes she and her mother have made. Even when she awakens to discover she is a vivid pink hue, the girl is delighted. However, when her continual consumption of the pastry results in her color deepening to a red, she knows she must listen to her doctor and consume the antidote of—what else—green foods. Kann’s snappy prose is filled with subtle puns and jokes—the girls calls herself “pinkerella” and “pinkerbelle”—to keep astute readers chuckling. The tale is over the top enough to engage older readers while the younger set will be fascinated by the thought of becoming their favorite color. Kann’s computer-enhanced, full-color illustrations are a continuation of the zaniness. Bold colors and collage-style accents create a surreal landscape in which a child turning pink seems to be almost normal. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-077639-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2006
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