Forget the Sugar Plum Fairy and those syrupy waltzes you can’t get out of your head each December. This is a new Nutcracker, with jazz by Ellington, African-American and Dominican children as party guests, and a Harlem nightclub of the ’20s as the fantasy destination for Clara and her prince. Byrd created his innovative version of the classic Christmas ballet for his own dance company, and the production was skillfully photographed by co-author Kuklin (Hoops with Swoopes, p. 742, etc.). Here, Clara is an African-American grandmother facing her first Christmas without her beloved husband Gus, who returns to her in dream sequences and again as the transformed nutcracker. The story mirrors the basic plot of the ballet, with the theme here of an aging grandmother’s acceptance of her husband’s passing and her own impending death rather than a young girl’s awakening. The antagonist is not the Mouse King, but a rather terrifying specter of death, who comes for Clara with his accompanying hounds, death maidens, and ghouls. At first, Clara repels the figure of death, but at the end, she is no longer afraid of him, and she exits on the arm of her husband-prince as they “climb the stairway to eternity.” Kuklin, an experienced dance photographer, captures both the expressive movement of the dancers and their subtle emotions in superb photographs with black backgrounds framed in jewel tones of ruby, emerald, and lapis. This powerful story is not just another retold fairy tale; it stands on its own, dancing in the reader’s imagination. Authors’ note. (Picture book. 8-11)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-0633-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Disney-Jump at the Sun
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
In a snowbound Swiss village, Matti figures it’s a good day to make a gingerbread man. He and his mother mix a batch of gingerbread and tuck it in the oven, but Matti is too impatient to wait ten minutes without peeking. When he opens the door, out pops a gingerbread baby, taunting the familiar refrain, “Catch me if you can.” The brash imp races all over the village, teasing animals and tweaking the noses of the citizenry, until there is a fair crowd on his heels intent on giving him a drubbing. Always he remains just out of reach as he races over the winterscape, beautifully rendered with elegant countryside and architectural details by Brett. All the while, Matti is busy back home, building a gingerbread house to entice the nervy cookie to safe harbor. It works, too, and Matti is able to spirit the gingerbread baby away from the mob. The mischief-maker may be a brat, but the gingerbread cookie is also the agent of good cheer, and Brett allows that spirit to run free on these pages. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23444-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Reads like a grown-up’s over-the-top effort to peddle a set of kid-friendly premises—a notion that worked for the author’s...
A boy asks Santa for a dinosaur and gets a life-changing experience.
Cribbing freely from any number of classic Christmas stories and films, musician/vlogger Fletcher places his 10-year-old protagonist, William, who uses a wheelchair, at the head of an all-white human cast that features his widowed dad, a girl bully, and a maniacal hunter—plus a dinosaur newly hatched from an egg discovered in the North Pole’s ice by Santa’s elves. Having stowed away on Santa’s sleigh, Christmasaurus meets and bonds with William on Christmas Eve, then, fueled by the power of a child’s belief, flies the lad to the North Pole (“It’s somewhere between Imagination and Make-Believe”) for a meeting with the jolly toymaker himself. Upon his return William gets to see the hunter (who turns out to be his uncle) gun down his dad (who survives), blast a plush dinosaur toy to bits, and then with a poster-sized “CRUNCH! GULP!” go down Christmasaurus’ hatch. In the meantime (emphasis on “mean”), after William spots his previously vicious tormenter, Brenda Payne, crying in the bushes, he forgives trespasses that in real life would have had her arrested and confined long ago. Seemingly just for laffs, the author tosses in doggerel-speaking elves (“ ‘If it’s a girl, can we call her Ginny?’ / ‘I think it’s a boy! Look, he’s got a thingy!’ ”) and closes with further lyrics and a list of 10 (secular) things to love about Christmas. Devries adds sugary illustrations or spot art to nearly every spread.
Reads like a grown-up’s over-the-top effort to peddle a set of kid-friendly premises—a notion that worked for the author’s The Dinosaur That Pooped a Planet (2017), but not here. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7330-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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