A slaphappy and musical rendering of Little Red Riding Hood comes straight from bayou country. Here Little Red is not just a duck, she is also Petite Rouge and she is off to visit her grand-mère who is “down wit’ de flu.” She jumps in her pirogue with her trusty cat TeJean to deliver “a taste a’ dat boudin / or shrimp etouffée.” But who do they run smack into but Ol’ Claude, one big gator. Now Claude also has etouffée on his mind, and Petite Rouge fights him off, but not before he learns where she is headed. He makes tracks for grand-mère’s place, scares her into a closet, and then tries to pull the classic fast one on Petite Rouge. In the Cajun-inflected rhyme scheme that ferries the book forward, Petite Rouge expresses her suspicions: “Petite Rouge, she say, ‘Grand-mère! / I know you been sick, / but I t’ink mah eyes / be playin’ on me a trick.” When Claude realizes the jig is up, he makes a jaw-snapping lunge for Petite Rouge, who, with the aid of TeJean, pops a string of hot-sauced boudin in his mouth. Claude races to the swamp to cool his chops and Petite Rouge and Grand-mère retire for a pleasant lunch. Lyrical and visually hilarious—the watercolors by Harris are sharp-edged and humorously detailed—with a feast of Cajun words and sounds. Readers “be roll’ on dat floor an’ dey laugh deyself good.” (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8037-2514-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Sloat collaborates with Huffman, a Yu’pik storyteller, to infuse a traditional “origins” tale with the joy of creating. Hearing the old women of her village grumble that they have only tasteless crowberries for the fall feast’s akutaq—described as “Eskimo ice cream,” though the recipe at the end includes mixing in shredded fish and lard—young Anana carefully fashions three dolls, then sings and dances them to life. Away they bound, to cover the hills with cranberries, blueberries, and salmonberries. Sloat dresses her smiling figures in mixes of furs and brightly patterned garb, and sends them tumbling exuberantly through grassy tundra scenes as wildlife large and small gathers to look on. Despite obtrusively inserted pronunciations for Yu’pik words in the text, young readers will be captivated by the action, and by Anana’s infectious delight. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-88240-575-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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