An upbeat view of innovations in modern living.
Making a special, unique, even personal mark on a neighborhood can have benefits for all.
It took thousands of years of human existence, from nomadic life to town or city dwelling, to create a sense of neighborhood. Then modern suburban life and urban blight seemed, at least partially, to break it down. Mulder posits that people, especially kids, have the power to rebuild that sense of neighborhood that so many generations knew. Readers are provided with copious examples of inventive and often brilliant ideas that have been implemented from locations around the world. There are pocket parks and gardens created in parking spots and other small spaces. Block parties, community festivals, street painting, pedestrian malls, knitters’ corners, lending libraries, self-serve sharing stations, and many more community-building efforts are presented, almost all of which are the ideas of ordinary adults and children. These innovations are sometimes faced with initial opposition from neighbors concerned with noise or crowds or from officials, as in “That’s public space—so no one can use it!” Loosely themed chapters offer brief explorations of each special place, illustrated with color photos. Scattered on the pages are sidebars with historic facts as well as places created in the author’s own city of Victoria, British Columbia. Throughout, readers are encouraged to run with their own place-making ideas in their own communities.
An upbeat view of innovations in modern living. (resources, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1691-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.
One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
In a large, handsome format, Tarnowska offers six tales plus an abbreviated version of the frame story, retold in formal but contemporary language and sandwiched between a note on the Nights’ place in her childhood in Lebanon and a page of glossary and source notes. Rather than preserve the traditional embedded structure and cliffhanger cutoffs, she keeps each story discrete and tones down the sex and violence. This structure begs the question of why Shahriyar lets Shahrazade [sic] live if she tells each evening’s tale complete, but it serves to simplify the reading for those who want just one tale at a time. Only the opener, “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,” is likely to be familiar to young readers; in others a prince learns to control a flying “Ebony Horse” by “twiddling” its ears, contending djinn argue whether “Prince Kamar el Zaman [or] Princess Boudour” is the more beautiful (the prince wins) and in a Cinderella tale a “Diamond Anklet” subs for the glass slipper. Hénaff’s stylized scenes of domed cityscapes and turbaned figures add properly whimsical visual notes to this short but animated gathering. (Folktales. 10-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84686-122-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
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