Perhaps this very brief, very explicit allegory of the love between Gilly and his grandmother is Julia Cunningham's answer to critics of Derp Dead: it's no more than a tender Christmas greeting otherwise. Left alone on Christmas Eve by Grandmother's departure to work in a sick household. Gilly finds a red onion with a note identifying it as his gift. "Why had she left this nonsensical vegetable....He reminded himself that his grandmother was a person of many meanings." Perplexed, annoyed, obsessed by the onion, he wanders aimlessly in the woods, finding a tumbled bird that flies away at the first opportunity, a badger that seizes his sandwich and disappears, a trapped hare that leaps off as soon as he frees it, a pair of emerald eyes that seem to menace him. Fortuitously taking the onion and a pine branch as his talismans, he feels his foreboding turn to empathy and sees each incident differently. "And, last, he looked at the onion....It was like love, layer upon layer of unending mystery...." With the addition of the onion, the pine branch becomes a tree; added to the branch, the onion becomes a star. The combination of overt moralizing, overextended symbolism and wispy texture is likely to draw a blank from most children though adults may well find it charming.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1967
ISBN: 0394818822
Page Count: -
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1967
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
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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