Young readers will kick up their heels at such frivolity.
Steinberg and Neubecker go for baroque in this tale of Louis XIV.
King Louis XIV had the biggest palace in the world, the biggest army, and the biggest parties, and he gave the biggest gifts. Unfortunately for someone who cared about size, “King Louie (which is how you say ‘Louis’ in French) was a shrimp.” So, in Steinberg’s humorous account, he compensates. His Royal Carpenter builds him a big throne. The Royal Hairdresser makes him the biggest wig ever. The Royal Shoemaker fashions ridiculously big heels for his shoes. And each effort at making the king larger goes hilariously awry. Predictably, the message of the story is that Louie’s size did not matter; the people liked him anyway because he had created a “proud and mighty nation,” where they were happy and safe. With no sense of real history, this silly, enjoyable story is enlivened with Neubecker’s bright palette and lively caricatures, the highlight being the full-bleed illustration of Louie’s wig, too big for the page to contain, later seen drooping in the rain. The endpapers, showing Louie’s colorful and high-heeled shoes, are a fitting visual footnote. Young readers will understand Louie’s desire to be bigger, to impress people with his importance. Unusually, brown-skinned people are among supporting characters pictured, although it is unclear whether they are courtiers, servants, or slaves.
Young readers will kick up their heels at such frivolity. (biographical facts) (Picture book/biography. 3-8)Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2657-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Share this with young readers as a series of homilies on dreams and a family love strong enough to overcome any adversity.
Frederick Douglass’ mother imparts 12 lessons, one for each mile she walks on her clandestine nighttime visits to him.
The author has taken as her inspiration the line from Douglass’ writings in which he remembers his mother teaching him that he was “somebody’s child.” Douglass was in fact separated from his mother as an infant and rarely saw her. She died when he was 7. In this story, she walks the 12 miles from plantation to plantation and shares with him what each means. The first mile is for forgetting about being tired, and the following miles are for praying, giving thanks to God, singing, smiling, hoping to live together as a family, dreaming about freedom and loving her son, among others. In this, her debut effort, Armand focuses on the positive aspects of maternal devotion and a mother’s dreams of greatness for her son. The full-page watercolor paintings capture the nighttime setting and depict a loving mother and child with no overt signs of the horrors of slavery. Unfortunately, the text is sometimes difficult to read on the dark background.
Share this with young readers as a series of homilies on dreams and a family love strong enough to overcome any adversity. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60060-245-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
