Charming.
A series of poems chronicles the summer two unnamed children spend on their grandparents’ farm, with particular emphasis on their animal friends.
Two-toned art appears every few pages, depicting farm and characters: grandparents and children (all white), Rexter the rooster, Seed-Sack the mule, Tuftin the cat, and newcomer Ginger-Tea, a dog to replace one that has died. While the text references no specific time period, an afterword informs readers “all this happened some time ago.” The joys of the farm are definitely those of yesteryear, and the illustrations complement them with a retro feel, providing warmth with oranges, golds, and browns. Chores exist, though they’re somewhat romanticized: Would a mule be able to carry two baskets of eggs in its teeth without breaking them? Nature provides a balance to the sweetness with a fox’s depredations to the henhouse. The poems don’t follow a singsong-y rhyme scheme but include some rhymes and near rhymes that are playfully memorable. “Gotta get the right doggone one,” says Grandpa in reference to a new dog, “or herding’ll be no doggone fun.” A quick read about a bygone way of life, the book is unlikely to have broad appeal, but thoughtful readers will respond to the wordplay as well as to the characterization of both humans and animals; Rexter’s and Seed-Sack’s personalities are particularly vivid throughout.
Charming. (Historical fiction/verse. 8-11)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55498-931-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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