The wealthy, yet stingy, king of Dahomey (now Benin) is ready to marry, but he is only willing to offer one meager cowry shell as dowry in a retelling “freely based on African folklore.” A clever young subject named Yo volunteers to find a bride for the king and sets off with the one cowry, bartering along the way until he has accumulated enough goods to offer a respectable number of gifts to a village chief. At each stop, Yo lists his growing stash in a refrain children will enjoy that ends “Well, well, I’m doing well, / thanks to Dada Segbo’s shell.” The chief’s clever daughter in turn uses her guile to obtain food and drink for her village and clothing (including jewelry made of hundreds of cowry shells) for herself from the king before consenting to the marriage. Soman’s collage illustrations flow across double-page spreads in a pleasing combination of colors, textures, and patterns, with black lines providing detail, especially of faces. They aptly convey the rural village and tropical setting of this West African tale. A humorous touch is Soman’s depiction of the increasingly exhausted messenger. A concluding author’s note provides background and cites the sources of this amusing, cumulative-type tale. (Picture book/folktale. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-531-30288-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up. Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields. Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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