A misleading title is the only stumble in this orotund, beguilingly illustrated original tale, a children’s-book debut for Holland. In a vain effort to stop the newly created animals from quarrelling, an angel gives them all different sorts of crowns. Horrified by her knobby new headgear, proud Reindeer flees to the barren North to hide. A thousand generations later, only the reindeer are willing to help Santa haul his toy-laden sleigh—though in saving it from falling through a patch of thin ice, they shatter antlers, leaving only broken stubs. Santa offers them golden crowns, but in the end he bestows an even more glorious gift: one night each year they fly, and so “draw the Christmas sleigh not over snowdrifts and frozen lakes, but out across the night sky among the tinsel stars.” Santa, the reindeer, the other animals, even the trees and rocks have a velvety look in Holland’s framed, barrel-shaped paintings; the reindeer in particular, with their sheep-like faces and velvety racks, look almost huggable. A splendid holiday tale, at once grand and appealing—but not so much about how the reindeer were given their antlers, as how they came to be so proud of them. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1562-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Nolen and Nelson offer a smaller, but no less gifted counterpart to Big Jabe (2000) in this new tall tale. Shortly after being born one stormy night, Rose thanks her parents, picks a name, and gathers lightning into a ball—all of which is only a harbinger of feats to come. Decked out in full cowboy gear and oozing self-confidence from every pore, Rose cuts a diminutive, but heroic figure in Nelson’s big, broad Western scenes. Though she carries a twisted iron rod as dark as her skin and ropes clouds with fencing wire, Rose overcomes her greatest challenge—a pair of rampaging twisters—not with strength, but with a lullaby her parents sang. After turning tornadoes into much-needed rain clouds, Rose rides away, “that mighty, mighty song pressing on the bull’s-eye that was set at the center of her heart.” Throughout, she shows a reflective bent that gives her more dimension than most tall-tale heroes: a doff of the Stetson to her and her creators. (author’s note) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-216472-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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