Supremely sophisticated bedtime fare, Rodari’s mildly muddled hoot revels in its own peculiar humor.
In this Italian import, first published in 1978, an elderly nobleman discovers the secret to youth…and endures the troubles that follow.
On a private island, 93-year-old Baron Lamberto abides with 24 maladies and his manservant, Anselmo. Together, the two invite six people to repeat the name “Lamberto” without cease. They are well paid and well fed but baffled by the assignment. They wouldn’t be if they could see how their efforts cause the aged baron to grow younger and younger. His greedy nephew Ottavio catches wind of the operation and schemes to get his inheritance sooner, but his nefarious plans are upended by the arrival of 24 bandits who promptly ransom Lamberto for their own purposes. While the storytelling traipses dangerously close to being more amusing to adults than children, its illogical logic more often than not transcends age. Translator Shugaar perfectly taps into the fiasco’s flavor, deftly displaying Rodari’s propensity for silliness, though his introduction makes it clear that there are political messages embedded throughout, which young readers likely won’t pick up on. Muradov’s illustrations pay homage to Bruno Munari’s abstract artwork, featured in the book’s 1980 edition, while giving the tale a gentle tone entirely of its own. Some parents or caregivers may be a bit perturbed by the images of oversize guns. Characters have skin the white of the page.
Supremely sophisticated bedtime fare, Rodari’s mildly muddled hoot revels in its own peculiar humor. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781592704156
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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