An exotic menagerie fenced in by design flubs and an anemic plotline.
Creatures step out of a bestiary in this tie-in to a manuscript exhibit at the Getty Museum.
The cheery if surreal episode features a young castle worker who swipes an unfinished bestiary and dreams of nonviolent knightly encounters with a lion, unicorn, dragon, and other mighty beasts of yore—somehow failing to notice until the end that his supposed foes have swirled out of the pages to feed the chickens, spread straw, light a fire, and finish the rest of his assigned tasks. Lee places richly hued, friendly looking versions of the creatures into bland castle-yard settings and adds a wizard-ish artist who watches and ultimately draws the animals back into their book. Readers may wonder if there’s a leaf missing partway through, where two very different full-page illustrations collide at the gutter. Further confusion will likely follow as the captions to a set of images from actual bestiaries at the end (following an inconspicuous cautionary note) present fancy as factoid: Lions “are afraid of fire and the sight of a white rooster”; a “dog that crosses a hyena’s shadow will lose its voice.” Even a chimeric bonnacon, which “attacks by expelling a fiery dung that can travel as far as two acres, burning anything it touches,” can’t quite redeem this artless outing. Save for the Asian-presenting wizard/artist, the human cast is white.
An exotic menagerie fenced in by design flubs and an anemic plotline. (appendix) (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947440-04-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Getty Publications
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A deeply felt narrative, distilled from contemporary reports and documents.
A Southern novelist looks to the Civil War’s immediate aftermath in this newly free child’s account of a weary search for his mother.
“War’s over. Government say we free. Folks be on the move. Getting the feel for freedom. Not me.” He joins the large number of ex-slaves who, “all hope and hurry on,” have hit the road in search of brighter futures, but young Gabe has a different goal: tracking down his sold-away and only living parent Rosie Lee. Keeping his goal before him like the fixed North Star, he travels for months from Mobile to the “worn-down toes of the Appalachian Mountains,” following vague leads from sympathetic listeners and offices of the Freedman’s Bureau, enduring hardships and disappointment. Applying paint in thickly brushed impasto, Shepherd views Gabe’s world and encounters from a child’s-eye height but gives the barefoot, raggedly clad boy a look of hard-won maturity that points to past sorrows and underscores the depth of his determination. His distinct voice will draw readers into caring about his quest and sharing the tide of joy that accompanies his ultimate success: “That night, I slept snuggled up tight with my mama, praying for all those boys like me searching for their mamas who be searching for them.”
A deeply felt narrative, distilled from contemporary reports and documents. (afterword) (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-933693-97-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
It's a pity that the real story behind this actual, extraordinary piece of ornate French décor is withheld, leaving readers...
The fictionalized story behind the creation of a 19th-century chandelier currently on display in the J. Paul Getty Museum.
In the early 1800s, Louis Alexandre enjoys visiting his Uncle Henri on his expansive estate just outside of Paris. On his latest visit, he finds his artist uncle distraught, unable to conceive a new design for a chandelier, which must incorporate the four classical elements: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. Several days of collaborative thinking, drawing, designing and building produce the unusual and intriguing light fixture, which includes a blue sphere with stars, griffins and a crystal bowl filled with swimming goldfish. The lengthy narration features the internal recounting of adventurous tales that serve as inspiration for the characters’ creativity. Intricate, darkly tinted ink-and-watercolor paintings depict the well-to-do gentleman and his nephew, both in ruffled shirts, imagining, consulting and overseeing the creation of a new masterpiece. They provide relief from the long-winded text, which, though not without humor, does readers a disservice in its baroque construction. An author’s note provides some clarification but no true investigation of the actual manufacture of the chandelier.
It's a pity that the real story behind this actual, extraordinary piece of ornate French décor is withheld, leaving readers cheated of a true exploration of art history. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60606-094-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Getty Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
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