According to an old Kabbalah legend, when God made the world, “he wanted to paint everything with a special kind of light so the world would shine with goodness.” Too powerful to be stored in a jar, the light burst forth, shattering into shards all over the globe. To make the world whole and peaceful again, God created people to help search for and find each broken piece of light. This rendition of an old midrash creation story is filled with a beautiful and simple message of hope. A peaceful coexistence is still possible for a world that is torn apart by war, hunger and blind hatred, if people look for the spark of light in everyone and everything. As in her biographical collection, Paths to Peace (2006), Zalben departs from her usual artistic style with this symbolic and elegant interpretation of the Judaic practice of “Tikun Olam,” or healing of the world. Using a combined media of paints, pencil and various household and other objects such as pieces of sand, seaweed, kasha grains, flower petals and cleansers, Zalben matches her well-crafted words with detailed and delicate collages of naturalistic plant and animal scenes and a multicultural group of dancing, joyful children surrounded by the glitter and glow of all those shards of light. Special and inspiring for all cultures. (Picture book. 5-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-525-47827-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.
Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
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