A traditional Scots tale served up both fresh and freshly illustrated.
The captive knight’s rescuer comes off as particularly fierce and courageous in this retelling of the old Scottish border ballad.
She’s heard the warnings, but as “Janet didn’t believe in fairy stories and Janet didn’t like being told what to do,” off she goes one October day to Carterhaugh Woods to pluck a rose and meet the dashing Tam Linn by a well. And why would she help him escape? “Because I believe that the boy stolen by the fairies should be allowed to walk back out of the woods.” Scowling beneath a heavy mane of red hair, Janet shines with determination in Longson’s shadowed, misty Celtic scenes—returning on Halloween to seize Tam Linn and hold on stubbornly while the enraged, Maleficent-like fairy queen transforms him first into a succession of huge wild beasts, and then a burning branch that Janet casts into the well. Out comes Tam Linn, wet, laughing and free. The romance being relegated to a closing glimpse of the two young folk holding hands, Janet’s heroism is the rendition’s most visible theme. Don recasts the ballad into standard English, without dialect or regional idiom. In other additions to the Picture Kelpies series Theresa Breslin does likewise as she relates with a wink how Assipattle and Princess Gemdelovely defeat the “ginormous” Dragon Stoorworm (illustrated by Matthew Land), and so does Janis Mackay for a bland version of The Selkie Girl (illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane). Of the simultaneously publishing trio, only Tam Linn comes with a historical note.
A traditional Scots tale served up both fresh and freshly illustrated. (Picture book/folk tale. 7-9)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-7825-0134-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Eeney meeney miney moe, catch this series before it goes! (Adventure. 7-9)
Two kids get up close and personal with some great works of art in this first in a new series.
Tiger Brooks is used to his little sister’s fantastical stories. So when the top-hatted orange pig she describes turns out to be not only real, but a next-door neighbor, Tiger enlists the help of his kooky new friend, Luna, to investigate. It turns out the pig works for the reclusive painter Viola Dots. Years ago a magical picture frame swallowed up her only son, and she’s searched for him in artworks ever since. When Tiger’s tinkering starts the magic up again, he and Luna are sucked into a reproduction of Henri Rousseau’s Surprised! or Tiger in a Tropical Storm, hungry predator and all. After meeting and failing to rescue Viola’s son in this adventure, the series is set up for the intrepid pair to infiltrate other classic paintings in the future. Backmatter provides information on the real Rousseau and his life. Oliver keeps the plot itself snappy and peppy. While there are few surprises, there’s also an impressive lack of lag time. This is helped in no small part by Kallis’ art, which goes from pen-and-ink drawings to full-blown color images once the kids cross over into the painting. Tiger is a white boy, and Luna is a dark-haired Latina.
Eeney meeney miney moe, catch this series before it goes! (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-448-48087-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When evil, oversized alien rabbits land at Dingdale Elementary chool (the “S” has fallen off the sign so often that custodian Fuzzy Dustin refuses to fix it any more), it’s up to young Hercules Smith and his slobbery pooch Sheldon to save the Earth—or at least the student body—from being transformed into carrots. Luckily (or maybe not), a pair of the titular Wuv Bunnies, heavily armed with kisses and truly toxic jokes, arrive from the Outers Pace Galaxy to help out. Elliott and Long milk this premise for all it’s worth, dishing up a Captain Underpants–style mix of text and wild cartoons—the former well-stocked with authorial asides, the latter filled with big-toothed bunnies sporting antennae and high-fiving each other after each gag. Capped by a gratuitous barrage of extra jokes (“What did the duck say when she bought some lipstick? Just put it on my bill. HA! HA! HA! HA!”), this is all perfectly pitched to its audience and guaranteed to garner groans from the grown-ups. (Fantasy. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1902-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2008
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