Monkey is often cast as a trickster in Asian folklore: Here he comes off as both wise and courageous.
A monkey king risks his life to save his simian clan in this adapted version of a Jataka tale.
Viswanath adds characters and details to the ancient original but subtracts some violence. Ignoring his king Kapi’s instruction to keep mangoes from falling into the river, Korung, “a mean and unhappy monkey,” lets one of the sweet fruits float off to be discovered by the king of Benares. That king leads a party upriver to locate the mango tree—and when he orders his archers to shoot the noisy monkeys in its branches, Kapi makes a bridge of his own body to allow his people to escape. Korung maliciously jumps on Kapi’s back, but the admiring king of Benares has the injured hero nursed back to health. In the end, remorseful Korung is forgiven, and the two wise kings go off to rule their respective kingdoms long and well. Reflecting several local traditions (identified in an appended note), Krishnaswamy mixes brightly colored figures and white-on-black silhouettes in her painted illustrations. Though stylized, they are anything but static; the monkeys, drawn with human limbs and proportions, not only display wide eyes and lively postures and expressions, but range in color from green to purple to black.
Monkey is often cast as a trickster in Asian folklore: Here he comes off as both wise and courageous. (afterword) (Picture book/folk tale. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-81-8190-033-3
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Karadi Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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