Preteen Lucy and her two younger brothers David and Harold are orphaned in a large Eastern city in the late-19th century and chosen to be riders on the orphan train. David, the elder of the brothers, leaves the train first. At a later stop, two different families select Harold and Lucy. Lucy adapts quickly to farm life and is overjoyed to see Harold at church on Sunday; they wonder if they’ll ever see David again. Kay’s singsong, cryptic verse is at odds with her subject matter. “Horses clip-clop, / Streets unclean. / Typhoid fever, / Quarantine!” Her words are as carefully chosen and evocative as ever, but they don’t fit the story. Presenting the death of parents and life on the streets in this manner feels like a trivialization of the subjects. The storytelling method better fits the tale once they reach the orphanage. Stark’s acrylic paintings are another matter entirely. He takes readers from the American version of Dickensian squalor to bucolic prairie bliss in the space of a few pages. These beautiful, impressionistic illustrations deserve a more appropriate text. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-399-23613-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
An inspiring story of young boy's compelling desire to read. As a boy of nine, Booker works in a salt mine from the dark of early morning to the gloom of night, hungry for a meal, but even hungrier to learn to read. Readers follow him on his quest in Malden, Virginia, where he finds inspiration in a man ``brown as me'' reading a newspaper on a street corner. An alphabet book helps, but Booker can't make the connection to words. Seeking out ``that brown face of hope'' once again, Booker gains a sense of the sounds represented by letters, and these become his deliverance. Bradby's fine first book is tautly written, with a poetic, spiritual quality in every line. The beautifully executed, luminous illustrations capture the atmosphere of an African-American community post-slavery: the drudgery of days consumed by back- breaking labor, the texture of private lives conducted by lantern- light. There is no other context or historical note about Booker T. Washington's life, leaving readers to piece together his identity. Regardless, this is an immensely satisfying, accomplished work, resonating first with longing and then with joy. (Picture book. 5- 8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-09464-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
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