Wit meets historical accuracy in a pitch-perfect mix of laugh-out-loud text and entertaining image. When the Earl of Daftwood decides to plan a tournament, everyone from the Steward to the Gong Farmer (also known as “Privy Lord”) is going to say what they think of it—and little is good. Told in rhyming monologues, the story of the tournament contains facts about life within a 13th-century English castle’s walls. A knight bemoans the uncomfortable clothing he must wear: “I see little, hear nothing, itch and perspire. / I pray I don’t rust before I retire.” Schindler’s pictures are clever odes to the illuminated manuscripts of yore. Whether he’s bedecking his curlicues with a cook’s questionable ingredients or turning a jester into a letter, these pictures are all worth examining closely, at times approaching Brueghelian riot. Sadly, no bibliography appears at the end, although the author’s note refers to what must have been considerable research. In spite of that, this simpler version of Laura Amy Schlitz’s Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (2007), illustrated by Robert Byrd, remains an informative delight bound to find its audience. (Informational picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59643-155-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flash Point/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
"From the beginning the baby was a disappointment to her mother," Cooney (The Story of Christmas, 1995, etc.) begins in this biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. She is a plain child, timid and serious; it is clear that only a few people loved her. After her parents die, she is cared for in the luxurious homes of wealthy relatives, but does not find acceptance until she arrives in a British boarding school, where she thrives on the attention of the headmistress, who guides, teaches, and inspires her. Cooney does not gloss over the girl's misery and disappointments; she also shows the rare happy times and sows the seeds of Eleanor's future work. The illustrations of house interiors often depict Eleanor as an isolated, lonely figure, her indistinct face and hollow eyes watching from a distance the human interactions she does not yet enjoy. Paintings reveal the action of a steamship collision; the hectic activity of a park full of children and their governesses; a night full of stars portending the girl's luminous future. The image of plain Eleanor being fitted with her first beautiful dress is an indelible one. Readers will be moved by the unfairness of her early life and rejoice when she finds her place in the world. An author's note supplies other relevant information. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-670-86159-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
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