Storytellers, students of folklore and those who appreciate seeing the work of international children’s-book creators will...
This adaptation of an (relatively) oft-told tale features a conversational text paired with illustrations that echo the story’s Japanese origins.
Ravishankar uses a straightforward, colloquial tone to tell the story of a young boy whose single-minded obsession with drawing cats has unexpected results. While this youngest son is not described as weak or sickly as in some other versions (by Arthur A. Levine and Frederic Clement, 1994, and Margaret Hodges and Aki Sogabe, 2002, among others), he is equally useless to his family. Recognizing his lack of agricultural aptitude, Akiro’s parents take him to the local temple in hopes that he can be trained as a priest. When his behavior doesn’t change, he is sent away again. This time, Akiro chooses his destination—a large temple in a nearby village. Kastl’s spare paintings, outlined in pen and ink, appear on textured, sepia backgrounds meant to resemble rice paper. While some may feel that the characters’ features are simplified to the point of stereotype, the overall impression is of respectful representation rather than cartoonish caricature. The abrupt climax, the impact of which is heightened by the artist’s toothy and terrifying picture of the “gigantic goblin rat,” will be a surprise to those unfamiliar with the tale.
Storytellers, students of folklore and those who appreciate seeing the work of international children’s-book creators will all welcome this intriguing import. (Picture book/folk tale. 5-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-8-181-90159-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Karadi Tales
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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