This original story by the first time author is a pourqoui tale of the seasons, similar to the familiar Greek legend of Persephone. In the before time, Sun’s daughters Maize, Pumpkin and Red Bean provide food in the midst of perpetual warmth. Maize, however, will not heed her mother’s warnings to stay in the open fields, and, wandering off the path, she encounters Silver. In spite of his icy coldness, she warms his skin and spends the night in his cave. Angered when she does not return, Sun denies her gifts to the people. The little gray pewee birds bring about her release for half the year by flying through the trees begging them, “Please weep. Please weep.” When they do, Silver keeps his promise to let Maize go for half a year, so seasons come to the people. Sherman states that the tale is an inspiration not an adaptation. Christie fills his paintings with the earthly hues of oranges, yellows and greens while his figures are more impressionistic than solid. While adding to the canon of Iroquois lore is to be commended, this reads as if the specifics of northeastern flora and fauna are simply grafted on to a universal tale. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 28, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-32430-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up. Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields. Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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