An enjoyable tale that should spark conversations about the ancient world and diverse cultures.
Author/illustrator Linenthal (Look Look Outside, 2012, etc.) turns to the Silk Road in this picture book.
Young Jaya’s mother has been summoned to King Kanishka’s palace to bake her famous apricot cake for his birthday celebration. Jaya is sad to see her go, but Mama leaves her with a necklace of three golden coins. After waving goodbye, Jaya searches for her father, only to discover that he, too, has instructions from the king. He must carve a magnificent statue of the peaceful Buddha, a figure he has never seen. Jaya makes a wish to know what this mysterious Buddha looks like, and the great god Shiva appears from one of the coins on her necklace to aid her. Jaya and her father complete the statue and then must convey it to the palace. On their journey, they encounter more obstacles, which they overcome through the power of Jaya’s necklace and the help of the gods Inanna and Hercules. This fun, engaging read-aloud tale offers plenty of action (“From out of the coin leapt the strongest of the gods, Hercules, carrying a ferocious-looking lion skin”). The adventure is richly illustrated by Linenthal in bright, celebratory colors. At the end of the story, there is useful historical information about the Kushan Empire and the multicultural nature of the Silk Road as well as a recipe for Mama’s apricot cake.
An enjoyable tale that should spark conversations about the ancient world and diverse cultures.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61429-232-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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