Folding Abenaki words and expressions into her narrative, Bruchac (scholar, storyteller and sister of the prolific Joseph) retells a child’s experience of the 1759 raid by Rogers’ Rangers on the Abenaki community of St. Francis. Weary from having helped prepare for a wedding feast, young Malian is snatched from her bed and hustled to safety by her beloved father, Simôn Obomsawin. That is the last that she ever sees of him. Hiding with others, she watches her village burn and then learns that her cousin, Maliazonis, had received a warning from a scout that the raid was impending. Malian describes how, after a hard winter, the survivors went on with their lives, and in later years she passed her memories on to the next generation. This view of the attack, which includes details never or inaccurately reported by Rogers and other contemporaries, remained in the oral tradition until 1959; with able assistance from Maughan’s carefully detailed, nonviolent scenes, it receives a strong, evocative rendition for young readers here. (bibliography, afterword) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-916718-26-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Vermont Folklife Center
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2006
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Nolen and Nelson offer a smaller, but no less gifted counterpart to Big Jabe (2000) in this new tall tale. Shortly after being born one stormy night, Rose thanks her parents, picks a name, and gathers lightning into a ball—all of which is only a harbinger of feats to come. Decked out in full cowboy gear and oozing self-confidence from every pore, Rose cuts a diminutive, but heroic figure in Nelson’s big, broad Western scenes. Though she carries a twisted iron rod as dark as her skin and ropes clouds with fencing wire, Rose overcomes her greatest challenge—a pair of rampaging twisters—not with strength, but with a lullaby her parents sang. After turning tornadoes into much-needed rain clouds, Rose rides away, “that mighty, mighty song pressing on the bull’s-eye that was set at the center of her heart.” Throughout, she shows a reflective bent that gives her more dimension than most tall-tale heroes: a doff of the Stetson to her and her creators. (author’s note) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-216472-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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