Sunflower-patterned end papers, sunflower fleuron on the verso, characteristic vignettes in the post-Impressionist notes at the back: Mayhew (Katie and the Mona Lisa, 1999, etc.) accomplishes the remarkable feat of keeping his own style, with its vivacious line and cheery colors, while echoing the manner of others. The “others” in this case mean Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne, and Katie once again travels inside the paintings when a rainy day sends her and her grandmother to the museum. There is no single real museum that holds all these treasures, but in Katie’s magical museum she knocks over the vase of Van Gogh sunflowers she’s so entranced by. Getting them back leads to a merry chase. The little dog of Gauguin’s Breton Girls snatches the sunflowers, and they chase him to the brightly lit Van Gogh Café Terrace at Night. Spilling Cézanne’s apples distracts the café waiter, the dog and the girls leap into Gauguin’s Tahitian Pastorals, but in the end it all works out, and Katie pockets a few of the dropped sunflower seeds for her and grandma’s garden. The desire to be in a painting is played with a winsome freshness: not only are these famous art works made accessible to young readers, but Mayhew captures post-Impressionist impasto and rich color effortlessly. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-531-30325-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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
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