In a picture book that is simultaneously simpler and much more abstract than his earlier celebrations of Charlie Parker (Charlie Parker Played Be Bop, 1992) and Thelonious Monk (Mysterious Thelonious, 1997), Raschka attempts to depict visually saxophone great John Coltrane’s “marvelous and tricky composition,” “Giant Steps.” A hip, avuncular narrator greets readers and then introduces the performers: a box, a snowflake (rendered as two, overlapping, squashy triangles), a raindrop, and a trademark Raschka kitten. The geometric shapes appear in translucent pastel watercolors; the kitten is outlined in dark gray with swift brushstrokes. The “characters” layer themselves over one another to create colorful “sheets of sound” to the accompaniment of narrative interpolations: “Hello, snowflake. Our snowflake is taking the piano part tonight, / showing us the harmony, the beautiful frame. Niceness.” This layering manages uncannily to deliver a visual approximation of the layers of sound in the composition; the kitten in particular, with her sometimes swoopy, sometimes angular lines that dart across the page, evokes the complex melodic line with its runs and stops, her onomatopoetic “Meow!” echoing the sound of the sax. This offering differs from the two previous in that it seeks to deliver a purely visual representation of sound with no melodic textual accompaniment, and once the characters are set up, there isn’t anywhere to go. The narrative constructs a sonic/visual train wreck of sorts, in which the characters lose control of the music. There follows a diagram of the “problem,” with circles and arrows to point out where each player got it wrong: “Now box, box, my friend. Much too heavy on page 18. I know you’re our foundation and you’ve got to be strong. But can you be strong yet light? Hmmmmm? Try.” This hiatus approaches preciousness, and while it gives the narrative an opportunity to discuss Coltrane’s genius, it does exactly what “Giant Steps” does not—it causes the piece to lose its momentum. Raschka has set the bar high for himself: conceptually, this interpretation nears brilliance, but in the end it loses control. Nevertheless: a fascinating and ambitious attempt to render the purely aural in a purely visual form. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84598-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Richard Jackson/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
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
Scotton makes a stylish debut with this tale of a sleepless sheep—depicted as a blocky, pop-eyed, very soft-looking woolly with a skinny striped nightcap of unusual length—trying everything, from stripping down to his spotted shorts to counting all six hundred million billion and ten stars, twice, in an effort to doze off. Not even counting sheep . . . well, actually, that does work, once he counts himself. Dawn finds him tucked beneath a rather-too-small quilt while the rest of his flock rises to bathe, brush and riffle through the Daily Bleat. Russell doesn’t have quite the big personality of Ian Falconer’s Olivia, but more sophisticated fans of the precocious piglet will find in this art the same sort of daffy urbanity. Quite a contrast to the usual run of ovine-driven snoozers, like Phyllis Root’s Ten Sleepy Sheep, illustrated by Susan Gaber (2004). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-059848-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005
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