A mother underestimates her young son’s memory in Fitzpatrick’s (I’m a Tiger Too!, p. 410, etc.) inventive offering. “When you were a baby we went to sea, didn’t we?” Fitzgerald begins, “You, Aunt Alice and me, all three. And a big, big trunk. But you were only a baby. You wouldn’t remember.” The opening spread reveals the Victorian-era scene as the pair share a scrapbook of the journey. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald’s luminous watercolors tell the story from the child’s perspective and reveal what really happened in alternating three-quarter-page spreads and framed vignettes. For example, the baby sees a deck hand drop the open trunk, but the mother doesn’t notice because her back is turned; opposite, stockings and other garments drift to sea in a thumbnail sketch. In the spread that follows (“We waved bye-bye, didn’t we? Then we were away, just like that, without any fuss,”) the baby bids adieu to a crewmember as he falls overboard. The format repeats throughout—mother’s story, refrain (“But you were only a baby. / You wouldn’t remember”) and child’s-eye view. Fitzgerald’s illustrations work in tandem with the text and are notable in their attention to detail. Children will enjoy pointing out the activity in each scene, making this a good choice for lap sharing. Unfortunately, the repetitive text—the very device on which the story hangs—soon wears thin, the set-up condescending. Although the now school-age child is capable of giving voice to his own experience, he remains silent throughout. He’ll have to rely on the audience to do the talking for him. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7613-1691-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An inspiring story of young boy's compelling desire to read. As a boy of nine, Booker works in a salt mine from the dark of early morning to the gloom of night, hungry for a meal, but even hungrier to learn to read. Readers follow him on his quest in Malden, Virginia, where he finds inspiration in a man ``brown as me'' reading a newspaper on a street corner. An alphabet book helps, but Booker can't make the connection to words. Seeking out ``that brown face of hope'' once again, Booker gains a sense of the sounds represented by letters, and these become his deliverance. Bradby's fine first book is tautly written, with a poetic, spiritual quality in every line. The beautifully executed, luminous illustrations capture the atmosphere of an African-American community post-slavery: the drudgery of days consumed by back- breaking labor, the texture of private lives conducted by lantern- light. There is no other context or historical note about Booker T. Washington's life, leaving readers to piece together his identity. Regardless, this is an immensely satisfying, accomplished work, resonating first with longing and then with joy. (Picture book. 5- 8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-09464-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
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