Extraordinarily exclusive.
A child can’t decide how to spend her day but takes inspiration from her love of art.
Isabella is content to spend her day off from school at home with her stuffed toy mouse, but her parents try to find alternate activities. Their discussion about possible places to visit and things to do is embedded with fine-art references that are also depicted and referenced in the illustrations. When Isabella’s mother asks, “[H]ow about the park?” Isabella responds, “Let me THINK about it,” and digital art depicts her as a statue in a pose similar to Rodin’s The Thinker that’s being carved by her now-anthropomorphized, sentient toy. Subsequent spreads reveal 10 other references to fine art, all but one of which are by white men. Mary Cassatt’s The Boating Party is the exception, in a spread depicting Isabella and her parents in a rowboat as she says, “A BOAT PARTY would be fun….But it’s awfully chilly today.” The exclusivity is enough to make readers “SCREAM” like Munch’s subject in another painting referenced in the book. At the end, Isabella invites her parents to see a museum of her own making, and they admire pictures on her bedroom wall inspired by the referenced art pieces, which are then identified in backmatter.
Extraordinarily exclusive. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7264-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The action of this rhymed and humorous tale centers upon a mouse who "took a stroll/through the deep dark wood./A fox saw the mouse/and the mouse looked good." The mouse escapes being eaten by telling the fox that he is on his way to meet his friend the gruffalo (a monster of his imagination), whose favorite food is roasted fox. The fox beats a hasty retreat. Similar escapes are in store for an owl and a snake; both hightail it when they learn the particulars: tusks, claws, terrible jaws, eyes orange, tongue black, purple prickles on its back. When the gruffalo suddenly materializes out of the mouse's head and into the forest, the mouse has to think quick, declaring himself inedible as the "scariest creature in the deep dark wood," and inviting the gruffalo to follow him to witness the effect he has on the other creatures. When the gruffalo hears that the mouse's favorite food is gruffalo crumble, he runs away. It's a fairly innocuous tale, with twists that aren't sharp enough and treachery that has no punch. Scheffler's funny scenes prevent the suspense from culminating; all his creatures, predator and prey, are downright lovable. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8037-2386-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1999
SEEN & HEARD
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