This visually chaotic version of an old folktale doesn’t work as a mild animal update. Bombarded by the incessant noise that surrounds his home in Bialystok, Dog moves to the countryside. His new little house is surrounded by “the blissful quiet of the country twilight”—until the middle of the night, when three rowdy neighborhood cats arrive in his yard to screech, yowl, break branches, and generally wreak havoc. Dog uses his wits to trick them into stopping. He convinces them that he loves the racket and pays them several gold zlotys to continue it over the next few nights, which leaves them unwilling to continue the service when he suddenly declares he’s out of money. They are too selfish to offer him “something for nothing,” and peace thus returns to his neighborhood. The watercolor paintings are busy, with no place to rest the eye and little indication about where to focus; even when Dog finds peace, the illustrations don’t. An author’s note says that this tale’s original version included people rather than animals and massacre rather than noise; the updated substitutions don’t ring true, and this Dog is too bright and imperturbable from the beginning to be an underdog. He’s a classic trickster character and would belong in a curriculum of trickster tales if there were not already so many better ones. (author’s note) (Picture book/folktale. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 24, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-15982-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
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
The can’t-miss subject of this Step into Reading series entry—a unicorn with a magic horn who also longs for wings—trumps its text, which is dry even by easy-reader standards. A boy unicorn, whose horn has healing powers, reveals his wish to a butterfly in a castle garden, a bluebird in the forest and a snowy white swan in a pond. Falling asleep at the edge of the sea, the unicorn is visited by a winged white mare. He heals her broken wing and she flies away. After sadly invoking his wish once more, he sees his reflection: “He had big white wings!” He flies off after the mare, because he “wanted to say, ‘Thank you.’ ” Perfectly suiting this confection, Silin-Palmer’s pictures teem with the mass market–fueled iconography of what little girls are (ostensibly) made of: rainbows, flowers, twinkly stars and, of course, manes down to there. (Easy reader. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83117-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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