Old Crump is a faithful ox who carries four children of forty-niners safely through Death Valley and across the mountains into California. He narrowly escapes being killed for food by the starving travelers, but in the end his faithfulness is rewarded. Although this is apparently based on a true story, there is no citation identifying the source of the diaries and letters mentioned in an author’s note. The intriguing illustrations add details, such as a watchful red-tailed hawk, a dog, and a desert mouse whose antics add interest to the tale, but Australian Winch (The Colt and the King, below, etc.) slips up in his illustration of a meal of “tortillas, beans, milk, and cheese,” which shows heaping plates of green beans rather than the expected frijoles. There are other problems in terms of plausibility. The travelers are reported to have burned their covered wagons and everything in them to keep warm during a cold windy night. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to crawl inside for shelter? In another instance, what looks like a shining lake turns out to be only a pool of brine. “Nothing but a mirage,” the text says. But technically this is not a mirage—there was water, although it was undrinkable. It would be nice to know the true story of these children and the ox, but this tale, like a mirage, is unfortunately not to be trusted. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 15, 2002
ISBN: 0-8234-1608-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A book that will make young dog-owners smile in recognition and confirm dogless readers' worst suspicions about the mayhem caused by pets, even winsome ones. Sam, who bears passing resemblance to an affable golden retriever, is praised for fetching the family newspaper, and goes on to fetch every other newspaper on the block. In the next story, only the children love Sam's swimming; he is yelled at by lifeguards and fishermen alike when he splashes through every watering hole he can find. Finally, there is woe to the entire family when Sam is bored and lonely for one long night. Boland has an essential message, captured in both both story and illustrations of this Easy-to-Read: Kids and dogs belong together, especially when it's a fun-loving canine like Sam. An appealing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8037-1530-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
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