Rhymes and colored pictures, that fold open to reveal an extension of the original scene, give the young a provocative meeting with big top characters. Each verse is something to guess at- what will Kiki the clown do, who will walk the tight-rope and so forth. The author's pictures are in the agreeably loose style of the illustrations for the Curious George books. Cloth spine with stapled pages. Not too firm.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1956
ISBN: 0395906954
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1956
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tragic, gripping, and inspiring story.
In 1979, 11-year-old Norman was the only survivor of a plane crash in Southern California: This is his true story.
This book for middle-grade readers, co-authored with Kiely, covers much of the same material as Ollestad’s 2009 memoir for adults, Crazy for the Storm. Flying in a four-seater Cessna with his father, his father’s girlfriend, Sandra, and the pilot, Norman was excited to reach Big Bear to receive his ski-racing trophy. (As a vivid example of his busy childhood, they’d driven the 300 miles there yesterday for Norman to compete—and then driven back to Topanga Canyon in the evening for his hockey game.) But the plane tragically crashed on a mountain in a blizzard. Nothing is sugarcoated; readers encounter graphic descriptions of the pilot and Norman’s dad, who died, and Sandra, who suffered a gaping head wound. Eventually accepting that he had to figure things out on his own, Norman drew upon the extreme training his father had put his “Boy Wonder” through—training that had bullied Norman into facing difficult physical and mental challenges that he feared and resented. During his trek to safety, Norman performed incredible mental and physical feats and encouraged the barely functioning Sandra—until she fell to her death. Norman’s conflicted feelings about the father he’d both idolized and resented are nuanced and satisfyingly resolved. Readers who enjoy nail-biting wilderness stories will be riveted.
A tragic, gripping, and inspiring story. (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780374392611
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
A quiet discovery that home is best.
Falgu, an Indian farmer, is trying to escape his noisy farm.
He hitches his oxen to his cart and starts off “to find silence” but soon picks up passengers who create different kinds of sounds. An old man gets on and plays his drum: “dum-dum.” A snake charmer plays “phee-phee” on his pipe. A troupe of dancers tap their feet: “tap-tap-tap.” When they all finally alight, Farmer Falgu “listened to the quiet night.” He recognizes the small nocturnal sounds, “crickets chirping, frogs croaking, the wind whispering,” and finally understands that his animals are noisy because they are happy. The terse onomatopoeic text with its sounds picked out in bold colors will keep young listeners engaged, and the pictures have a Rouault-like flavor with dark outlines and deep colors. Their focus is on Falgu and his experience, and readers hoping for a broader sense of India will not find it here; the snake charmer makes for a rather stereotypical element. This simple story of one man’s dissatisfaction with his surroundings and his emotional change and acceptance of what was once an annoyance is a common theme in picture books, recalling such works as the Caldecott Honor book It Could Always Be Worse, by Margot Zemach (1977).
A quiet discovery that home is best. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-8-1819-0311-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Karadi Tales
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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