With five dollars in quarters in his pocket, Nathan and his grandfather begin a quest to buy a traditional menorah, one with cups to hold oil rather than candles. In a lengthy text, together they explore a couple of stores, each offering a variety of choices from electric to modern artistic versions, all too pricey for Nathan’s budget. Grandpa laments the good old shopping days when bargaining was the norm. Spotting a traditional tarnished old silver menorah in the basement window of an antique shop, and taking a cue from his savvy Grandpa, Nathan takes a chance and drives a good bargain for his purchase. Hierstein’s realistic gouache paintings of a snowy urban outing bring a vivid authenticity to this intergenerational story of traditional values, respect and understanding. Yet, while these themes are genuine, Grandfather’s reminiscences of bargaining with old-style street peddlers seem out of sync with and unreflective of today’s comparatively hip population of boomer grandparents raised after World War II. Too bad. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-58980-454-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area.
A pair of cardinals is separated and then reunited when their tree home is moved to New York City to serve as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
The male cardinal, Red, and his female partner, Lulu, enjoy their home in a huge evergreen tree located in the front yard of a small house in a pleasant neighborhood. When the tree is cut down and hauled away on a truck, Lulu is still inside the tree. Red follows the truck into the city but loses sight of it and gets lost. The birds are reunited when Red finds the tree transformed with colored lights and serving as the Christmas tree in a complex of city buildings. When the tree is removed after Christmas, the birds find a new home in a nearby park. Each following Christmas, the pair visit the new tree erected in the same location. Attractive illustrations effectively handle some difficult challenges of dimension and perspective and create a glowing, magical atmosphere for the snowy Christmas trees. The original owners of the tree are a multiracial family with two children; the father is African-American and the mother is white. The family is in the background in the early pages, reappearing again skating on the rink at Rockefeller Center with their tree in the background.
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7733-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for.
An overview of the modern African-American holiday.
This book arrives at a time when black people in the United States have had intraracial—some serious, some snarky—conversations about Kwanzaa’s relevance nowadays, from its patchwork inspiration that flattens the cultural diversity of the African continent to a single festive story to, relatedly, the earnest blacker-than-thou pretentiousness surrounding it. Both the author and consultant Keith A. Mayes take great pains—and in painfully simplistic language—to provide a context that attempts to refute the internal arguments as much as it informs its intended audience. In fact, Mayes says in the endnotes that young people are Kwanzaa’s “largest audience and most important constituents” and further extends an invitation to all races and ages to join the winter celebration. However, his “young people represent the future” counterpoint—and the book itself—really responds to an echo of an argument, as black communities have moved the conversation out to listen to African communities who critique the holiday’s loose “African-ness” and deep American-ness and moved on to commemorate holidays that have a more historical base in black people’s experiences in the United States, such as Juneteenth. In this context, the explications of Kwanzaa’s principles and symbols and the smattering of accompanying activities feel out of touch.
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for. (resources, bibliography, glossary, afterword) (Nonfiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2849-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
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