Subtitling her re-creation ``An Account of the Earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 by a Bear Who Was a Witness,'' the Tennessee poet (Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet, 1989) and picture book author (You Hold Me and I'll Hold You, 1992) evokes the three massive quakes as experienced by a bear at their epicenter in New Madrid, Missouri. Her narrator behaves like a bear and refers matter-of-factly to the earth as ``Mother,'' yet is an intelligent observer and has a poet's sensitivity to language- -and, withall, his voice is so consistently imagined and so richly entertaining that the reader gladly accepts it. ``The shakings began as if Mother was rising from her sleep. She sleeps in the winter like I do. Something itched her. I was pushed from my fold in her skin.'' Later, ``Horses, cows, and other fools who want leading froze in their tracks and drowned. I swam.'' Gleaning curious facts (e.g., ``a stag whose antlers were filled with crows'') from her research, Carson sets them among more serious observations (what people of different races imagined God meant by the quakes) and the bear's sensations, which not only offer vivid close-ups of the historical cataclysm but have a pungently idiosyncratic humor. Parker's hand-colored aquatints are a splendid complement, subtly recalling old prints while conveying the earth's awesome power and the animals' unquestioning fortitude in dark, misty tones and compositions of singular beauty. A unique and extraordinary accomplishment by all concerned. Note about earthquakes. (Picture book. 5+)
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-531-06809-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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