While Ormerod’s beginning chapter book covers familiar territory, she infuses it with enough sparkle and subtle wit to make it refreshing. Her tale of two sisters is told from the “wiser” perspective of the beleaguered older sibling, who handles the adoration and subsequent imitation of her younger sister with pleasing tolerance. In three short chapters, Ormerod address practicing, getting ready for and attending dance class—high-interest topics to young readers of a certain age with ballerina dreams dancing in their heads. Ormerod lightly addresses sibling rivalry, yet keeps the text appropriately brief for readers just venturing into easy-reader territory. Comical moments propel the action in each chapter, maintaining the momentum of the simply wrought tale. Her colorfully rendered sketches—bordered by dainty ribbon frames, with a different ribbon color denoting a new chapter—convey the humorous side of sibling life. Ormerod’s twinkling tale is ideally suited for aspiring prima ballerinas ready to move onto big girl books. (Easy reader. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-439-82281-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2007
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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