THE SEVEN VOYAGES OF SINBAD THE SAILOR

Name: THE SEVEN VOYAGES OF SINBAD THE SAILOR
Author: Said
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4240-3

by Said ; illustrated by Rashin ; translated by David Henry Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2015

Ageless yarn-spinning, if not quite so laced with thrilling melodrama as John Yeoman and Quentin Blake’s rendition (1997).

bookshelf

Bright-eyed beneath a huge, floppy turban, an ever optimistic merchant sets out again and again on rocky roads to riches in this lighthearted version of the classic Arabian Nights adventures, from two Iranian expats.

Forgetting with comical regularity the disasters of each previous voyage, Sinbad repeatedly sets out from Basra with companies of fellow merchants on sea voyages. These invariably end in shipwreck and go on, through encounters with rocs, giant fish, cannibals, and such hazardous customs as the practice of burying living husbands with their dead wives, to conclude in miraculous restorations of luck and fortune. Though he relegates mention of Scheherazade to an introduction, Said links his first-person renditions with the secondary frame story common in traditional versions. Similarly, though the figures in her vignettes and wide-bordered full-page illustrations sport cartoonishly exaggerated garb and expressions, Rashin incorporates simplified but evocative Persian and other Middle Eastern stylistic motifs. Some pictures part company in major ways with the narrative, though, and less-than-proficient readers may find Said’s formal prose—“There is no protection and no power besides that of God the Almighty! But as often as God is merciful to me and frees me from one perilous situation, I plunge myself into another”—a bit of a slog.

Ageless yarn-spinning, if not quite so laced with thrilling melodrama as John Yeoman and Quentin Blake’s rendition (1997). (Folk tales. 10-13)

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-7358-4240-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: NorthSouth

Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
SNOW BEARS NEVER LIE
by Said ; illustrated by Marine Ludin ; translated by David Henry Wilson

bookshelf

A YEAR DOWN YONDER

From the Grandma Dowdel series , Vol. 2

by Richard Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2000

Year-round fun.

bookshelf

Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.”

This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot; it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. The first-person narration is infused with rich, colorful language—“She was skinnier than a toothpick with termites”—and Mary Alice’s shrewd, prickly observations: “Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”

Year-round fun. (Fiction. 11-13)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000

ISBN: 978-0-8037-2518-8

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEST MAN
by Richard Peck

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MOUSE WITH THE QUESTION MARK TAIL
by Richard Peck ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy

- BOOK REVIEW
SECRETS AT SEA
by Richard Peck illustrated by Kelly Murphy

bookshelf

GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

From the Maggie Brooklyn Mysteries series

by Leslie Margolis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2010

bookshelf

In this series debut, Maggie Sinclair tracks down a dognapper and solves a mystery about the noises in the walls of her Brooklyn brownstone apartment building. The 12-year-old heroine, who shares a middle name—Brooklyn—with her twin brother, Finn, is juggling two dogwalking jobs she’s keeping secret from her parents, and somehow she attracts the ire of the dogs’ former walker. Maggie tells her story in the first person—she’s self-possessed and likable, even when her clueless brother invites her ex–best friend, now something of an enemy, to their shared 12th birthday party. Maggie’s attention to details helps her to figure out why dogs seem to be disappearing and why there seem to be mice in the walls of her building, though astute readers will pick up on the solution to at least one mystery before Maggie solves it. There’s a brief nod to Nancy Drew, but the real tensions in this contemporary preteen story are more about friendship and boy crushes than skullduggery. Still, the setting is appealing, and Maggie is a smart and competent heroine whose personal life is just as interesting as—if not more than—her detective work. (Mystery. 10-13)