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THE GIRL WITH THE CAT

Name: THE GIRL WITH THE CAT
Author: Beverly Brenna
ISBN: 978-0-88995-531-8

by Beverly Brenna ; illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 2020

This odd combination of specificity and vagueness is more about the protagonist’s personal arc than about art.

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A girl becomes attached to a piece of art in a gallery.

Exploring a new city with her older brother, the first-person narrator wanders into an art gallery and falls in love with a bronze sculpture of a girl in a rocking chair with a cat. Nine-year-old Caroline bonds with the sculpture, running her hands over it and talking to it: about ice cream, about being forced to give away her own cat when her family moved, and about not having friends. When the sculpture’s due to leave the gallery, Caroline gathers her spare change and begs for it to stay, spurring a donation campaign that succeeds. Brenna’s core arc is true: a real White girl in 1966, a sculpture, a handwritten letter, a donation campaign. Caroline Markham’s full name, relevant city names (Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa), and even the gallery director’s name are specified in the main text; egregiously, the real sculptor, Arthur Price, goes unnamed—even in the backmatter (he is named in flap copy). Kerrigan’s rendering of the sculpture is too watery and low-saturation to evoke bronze; the gallery’s many paintings—which Caroline also loves—are visually pleasant and peaceful but indistinct. Inexplicably, the text minutely changes the sculpture’s name—from Girl With Cat to The Girl and the Cat—and changes the Mendel Art Gallery to the generic Art Gallery.

This odd combination of specificity and vagueness is more about the protagonist’s personal arc than about art. (author's note, photos) (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-88995-531-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Red Deer Press

Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

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THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY WHISKERS

From the Adventures of Henry Whiskers series , Vol. 1

by Gigi Priebe ; illustrated by Daniel Duncan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 3, 2017

Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.

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The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.

In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).

Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

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MUMBET'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

by Gretchen Woelfle ; illustrated by Alix Delinois ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2014

A life devoted to freedom and dignity, worthy of praise and remembrance.

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With the words of Massachusetts colonial rebels ringing in her ears, a slave determines to win her freedom.

In 1780, Mumbet heard the words of the new Massachusetts constitution, including its declaration of freedom and equality. With the help of a young lawyer, she went to court and the following year, won her freedom, becoming Elizabeth Freeman. Slavery was declared illegal and subsequently outlawed in the state. Woelfle writes with fervor as she describes Mumbet’s life in the household of John Ashley, a rich landowner and businessman who hosted protest meetings against British taxation. His wife was abrasive and abusive, striking out with a coal shovel at a young girl, possibly Mumbet’s daughter. Mumbet deflected the blow and regarded the wound as “her badge of bravery.” Ironically, the lawyer who took her case, Theodore Sedgwick, had attended John Ashley’s meetings. Delinois’ full-bleed paintings are heroic in scale, richly textured and vibrant. Typography becomes part of the page design as the font increases when the text mentions freedom. Another slave in the Ashley household was named in the court case, but Woelfle, keeping her young audience in mind, keeps it simple, wisely focusing on Mumbet.

A life devoted to freedom and dignity, worthy of praise and remembrance. (author’s note, selected bibliography, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)