THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A BOOT

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THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A BOOT

Name: THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A BOOT
Author: Linda Smith
ISBN: 0-06-028691-1

by Linda Smith & illustrated by Jane Manning ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2003

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The author of Mrs. Biddlebox (2002) posits another irascible senior citizen, this one living in a big boot with only an equally irritable cat for company. The arrival of five rambunctious children to a neighboring shoe sends both scurrying to the nearest witch for a supply of “Kiddie-Be-Gone.” Unfortunately, it’s a stale batch (and she doesn’t read the instructions); suddenly, the coterie of cheerful young folk is transformed into a huddle of grumpy, querulous oldsters, “Some saggy and baggy, with moles on their skin, / Some crinkled and wrinkled, with rolls on their chin.” Manning sets this cautionary tale in a landscape of rolling hills and widely scattered shoes and cottages. The old folk are all marked by scowls beneath oversized red noses—until the old woman hastily stirs up a batch of “Kiddie-Come-Back” that restores her neighbors to a fresh-faced, “clattering, chattering, clamoring crew” of children. “Now what would that old woman do?” Well, if you can’t beat ’em. . . . Readers of Mother Goose with lingering questions about that old woman with so many children will find some answers at last, in this lively take on the traditional rhyme. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-06-028691-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE INSIDE TREE
by Linda Smith & illustrated by David Parkins

- BOOK REVIEW
MRS. CRUMP’S CAT
by Linda Smith & illustrated by David Roberts

- BOOK REVIEW
MRS. BIDDLEBOX
by Linda Smith & illustrated by Marla Frazee

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RAPUNZEL

adapted by Rachel Isadora & illustrated by Rachel Isadora ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2008

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Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
DO I HAVE TO WEAR A COAT?
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

- BOOK REVIEW
MY DOG LAUGHS
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

- BOOK REVIEW
I JUST WANT TO SAY GOOD NIGHT
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

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IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT

by Andrea Beaty & illustrated by David Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2007

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A repressive teacher almost ruins second grade for a prodigy in this amusing, if overwritten, tale. Having shown a fascination with great buildings since constructing a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa from used diapers at age two, Iggy sinks into boredom after Miss Greer announces, throwing an armload of histories and craft projects into the trash, that architecture will be a taboo subject in her class. Happily, she changes her views when the collapse of a footbridge leaves the picnicking class stranded on an island, whereupon Iggy enlists his mates to build a suspension bridge from string, rulers and fruit roll-ups. Familiar buildings and other structures, made with unusual materials or, on the closing pages, drawn on graph paper, decorate Roberts’s faintly retro cartoon illustrations. They add an audience-broadening element of sophistication—as would Beaty’s decision to cast the text into verse, if it did not result in such lines as “After twelve long days / that passed in a haze / of reading, writing and arithmetic, / Miss Greer took the class / to Blue River Pass / for a hike and an old-fashioned picnic.” Another John Lithgow she is not, nor is Iggy another Remarkable Farkle McBride (2000), but it’s always salutary to see young talent vindicated. (Picture book. 6-8)