A sweet commemoration of a shared experience, presented with care and infused with intimacy.
Select words paired to sonorous equivalents in the Swampy Cree dialect highlight this serene picture of a blueberry-picking expedition.
Since before he could walk, little Clarence has accompanied his grandma in season to a certain clearing to pick “wild berries / pikaci-minísa.” Once grandma has checked for bears (“maskwak”), the two set to picking—and eating—with breaks to watch an ant (“eník”) and other wildlife. When their buckets are full, they say “thank you / nanaskomowak” and depart—leaving a handful of berries for the birds. In the illustrations, two figures walk among tall, widely spaced tree trunks through grasses neatly drawn in single, straight brushstrokes to a clearing mottled with low berry plants. A red sun hangs in a white sky that is visually an extension of the white facing page on which the Cree, printed in red italics, draws the eye to the short, widely spaced lines of narrative. Except for a passing fox and the occasional bird, animals are depicted as silhouettes, which adds to the episode’s overall visual simplicity. Flett, an illustrator of Cree-Métis heritage, created a cultural and artistic showcase in Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet (2010); despite the language notes, this offering is a more general one.
A sweet commemoration of a shared experience, presented with care and infused with intimacy. (pronunciation guide, wild blueberry jam recipe) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-897476-89-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simply Read Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work.
A young spinach hater becomes a spinach lover after she has to grow her own in a class garden.
Unable to trade away the seed packet she gets from her teacher for tomatoes, cukes or anything else more palatable, Sylvia reluctantly plants and nurtures a pot of the despised veggie then transplants it outside in early spring. By the end of school, only the plot’s lettuce, radishes and spinach are actually ready to eat (talk about a badly designed class project!)—and Sylvia, once she nerves herself to take a nibble, discovers that the stuff is “not bad.” She brings home an armful and enjoys it from then on in every dish: “And that was the summer Sylvia Spivens said yes to spinach.” Raff uses unlined brushwork to give her simple cartoon illustrations a pleasantly freehand, airy look, and though Pryor skips over the (literally, for spinach) gritty details in both the story and an afterword, she does cover gardening basics in a simple and encouraging way.
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9836615-1-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Readers to Eaters
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
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