This collection of seasonal poetry by the late Esbensen (The Night Rainbow, not reviewed, etc.) was previously published in the ’60s in a slightly longer length with black and white illustrations. This new edition of 20 poems uses a different artist to illustrate the poems for each of the four seasons, requiring the necessary visual adjustment to shifting artistic styles inherent in this format. In the first section, Cheng-Khee Chee chose mossy greens and grays for his springtime watercolor illustrations, with the impressionistic, misty overtones of a wet, early spring. For the summer selections, Janice Lee Porter’s acrylic paintings incorporate lush tones and curving lines to illustrate the fullness of the season in poems about a vacant lot, ripe pears, and a sudden storm. Mary GrandPré, illustrator of the American edition of the Harry Potter stories, illustrated the autumn poems in fall hues on deep-toned backgrounds that convey the spooky side of the season, concluding with a transitional poem that predicts the changes inherent in winter. Caldecott Medalist Stephen Gammell effectively captures the mood of northern winters in his bright white and deep blue paintings, with splashes of flying snowflakes. Some of the volume’s best poems celebrate the serious winters of Esbensen’s home state of Minnesota, with an eerie ode called “The Wind Woman” and a memorable final poem about a little girl walking through deep snow at night. Almost all of the short poems rhyme, but the varied and sophisticated rhyme schemes show the range of the poet’s extraordinary talent. (biographical notes, publisher note) (Poetry. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-87614-143-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003
This heavily earnest celebration of multi-ethnicity combines full-bleed paintings of smiling children, viewed through a golden haze dancing, playing, planting seedlings, and the like, with a hyperbolic, disconnected text—``Dark as leopard spots, light as sand,/Children buzz with laughter that kisses our land...''— printed in wavy lines. Literal-minded readers may have trouble with the author's premise, that ``Children come in all the colors of the earth and sky and sea'' (green? blue?), and most of the children here, though of diverse and mixed racial ancestry, wear shorts and T-shirts and seem to be about the same age. Hamanaka has chosen a worthy theme, but she develops it without the humor or imagination that animates her Screen of Frogs (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-11131-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
Girl science power and new friendships make for a good combination.
In Fliess’ update, Mary is an inventive scientist, but she’s a lonely one.
“Mary had a little lab. / She tested and created. / While other kids were at the park, / she built and calculated.” The window of her lab provides views of the kids’ fun, and they inspire her to make a friend. Literally. She bikes to a farm for a snip of wool and heads back to use her latest invention: the Sheepinator. The resultant pet is everything she could hope for, not only providing companionship, but also helping out around the house and lab. And when he follows her to school, the kids all ask for their own wooly friends. What could possibly go wrong? Bouloubasis’ hysterical illustrations show the chaos that ensues, but the scientist and her new human friends think of a clever solution that leaves the whole town satisfied…and warm. Fliess’ verses include enough of the original poem (but tweaked) to tickle readers’ funny bones, and the rhyme and rhythm are spot-on. Mary is a wild-haired white redhead who is depicted as safety-conscious (bike helmet, ear protection, rubber gloves, etc.); the other kids are a diverse group. Most diverse (and somewhat distracting) of all are the noses on their faces—all sizes, shapes, and colors.
Girl science power and new friendships make for a good combination. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4982-7
Page Count: 37
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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