An historical anecdote about Cosimo de’ Medici’s jealous attachment to the sweet-smelling jasmine plant for which a young, romantic gardener risks his life is offered up here as a folktale set in palace gardens and courtyards and along pastoral Tuscan walks. Antonio’s sweetheart, the beautiful cook Donatella, uses courage and mild trickery to free her beloved from Cosimo’s deep dungeon in Volterra, into which he’s been thrown because of the theft. Hendricks’s mild palette and mannered scenes lend atmosphere but only a few sparks to McAlister’s measured pace. The effect is curiously flat, with Donatella’s rescue of her future husband a foregone conclusion in both visual and textual narrative. One might wish for more demonstration of Cosimo’s fabled villainous tyranny or for more conflict before the neat, if heroine- (rather than hero-) achieved resolution, but the whole affords an unusual, pictorial glimpse of the Boboli Gardens and of the Italian Renaissance. (author’s note, bibliography) (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-57091-729-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
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
A life devoted to freedom and dignity, worthy of praise and remembrance.
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)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7613-6589-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
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