Cora Lee Merriweather may have a sour lemon-pucker mouth, but she makes the sweetest cakes around. When the elderly baker dies and the Merriweather Bake Shop is sold, Cora Lee’s ghost is not happy: “Get out of my kitchen!” the furious phantom shouts at the first three owners. They do. Years later, however, a fearless African-American pastry chef named Annie Washington falls in love with the shop. Cora Lee goes in for the kill, shrieking, smashing eggs, the whole works, until the baker finally breaks: “ ‘Enough!’ Annie cried. ‘What do you want?’ ” Cora Lee mysteriously demands a cake “like one I might have baked, but that no one ever made for me.” “Piece of cake,” Annie says. But neither babkas nor bundts can scratch Cora Lee’s itch, until Annie visits the library and discovers what the long-ago orphaned baker really wants. Priceman’s gleeful watercolor-and-ink illustrations capture Cora Lee’s ghostly hauntings with all the right swoops and swirls in this sweet story of how generous dollops of perseverance and kindness make the perfect cake. (recipe) (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: July 25, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44557-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2005
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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