Nagda (Tiger Territory: A Story of the Chitwan Valley, 1999) offers middle readers a taste of the pleasures and rewards of helping others. The assignment: to write a letter from a mouse and send it to a penpal in second grade. Unlike her overachieving neighbor Susan, fourth grader Jenny has trouble thinking of things to write, and the exercise becomes even less appealing when her correspondent Sameera returns either perfunctory responses or none at all. After some gentle teacherly prodding, Jenny plods down the hall to meet Sameera, who turns out to be a shy, sullen new arrival from Saudi Arabia with only a few words of English. Soon, almost despite herself, Jenny is sharing favorite picture books with Sameera, writing more letters, and, after a flash of inspiration, sharing homemade mouse cookies—a ploy that not only breaks through Sameera’s reserve, but attracts the rest of the second graders too. Jenny earns a commendation from her own teacher, and to the envy of her classmates, an invitation to spend a period baking more cookies in the teachers’ lounge! Roth plants smiling, natural-looking people into everyday settings, perfectly capturing this episode’s relaxed, uncontrived atmosphere. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1495-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
PLB 0-688-13166-2 King Midas And The Golden Touch ($16.00; PLB $15.63; Apr.; 32 pp.; 0-688-13165-4; PLB 0-688-13166-2): The familiar tale of King Midas gets the golden touch in the hands of Craft and Craft (Cupid and Psyche, 1996). The author takes her inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling, capturing the essence of the tale with the use of pithy dialogue and colorful description. Enchanting in their own right, the illustrations summon the Middle Ages as a setting, and incorporate colors so lavish that when they are lost to the uniform gold spurred by King Midas’s touch, the point of the story is further burnished. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13165-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Lunge-Larsen and Preus debut with this story of a flower that blooms for the first time to commemorate the uncommon courage of a girl who saves her people from illness. The girl, an Ojibwe of the northern woodlands, knows she must journey to the next village to get the healing herb, mash-ki- ki, for her people, who have all fallen ill. After lining her moccasins with rabbit fur, she braves a raging snowstorm and crosses a dark frozen lake to reach the village. Then, rather than wait for morning, she sets out for home while the villagers sleep. When she loses her moccasins in the deep snow, her bare feet are cut by icy shards, and bleed with every step until she reaches her home. The next spring beautiful lady slippers bloom from the place where her moccasins were lost, and from every spot her injured feet touched. Drawing on Ojibwe sources, the authors of this fluid retelling have peppered the tale with native words and have used traditional elements, e.g., giving voice to the forces of nature. The accompanying watercolors, with flowing lines, jewel tones, and decorative motifs, give stately credence to the story’s iconic aspects. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-90512-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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