Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, elderberries, bunchberries, currants . . . yum. The indefatigable Gibbons (Behold . . . the Unicorns!, 2001, etc.) surveys these glowing gems of the plant world, carefully differentiating between the edible and the inedible, the wild and the cultivated. She takes strawberries in stages from flower to mature fruit, showing other berries on the bush, in the collection basket, and being eaten or used for decoration, then ends with simplified recipes and some additional facts. Her design is to treat one topic per page, using vignettes to feature the differences. So a page on harvesting cultivated berries includes a hand picking a strawberry, another holding a blueberry rake, a third features a giant blueberry-picking machine, and the fourth a hand-pushed cranberry picker. Very basic facts about several varieties help to fill the pages: “Cranberries grow in bogs. Cranberries are firm and red. A BOG is a wet area. Cranberry sauce is served with turkey.” With characteristic visual simplicity she depicts them in a rightfully luscious-looking array of shapes and colors too. Hardly a definitive overview, but certainly a beginning. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 15, 2002
ISBN: 0-8234-1697-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2002
Sloat collaborates with Huffman, a Yu’pik storyteller, to infuse a traditional “origins” tale with the joy of creating. Hearing the old women of her village grumble that they have only tasteless crowberries for the fall feast’s akutaq—described as “Eskimo ice cream,” though the recipe at the end includes mixing in shredded fish and lard—young Anana carefully fashions three dolls, then sings and dances them to life. Away they bound, to cover the hills with cranberries, blueberries, and salmonberries. Sloat dresses her smiling figures in mixes of furs and brightly patterned garb, and sends them tumbling exuberantly through grassy tundra scenes as wildlife large and small gathers to look on. Despite obtrusively inserted pronunciations for Yu’pik words in the text, young readers will be captivated by the action, and by Anana’s infectious delight. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-88240-575-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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