Having flung their intrepid young characters through breakneck homages to Art (Anna’s Art Adventure, 1999) and Literature (The Story in Search of a Story, 1999), Sortland and Elling now plunge them into a whirl of scenes from classic cinema. As in the previous tales, it’s an allusive landscape that is traversed. Here, Max Schreck (“Nosferatu”) rears up next to a poster of Al Jolson in blackface; there, a breathless ride on Ben-Hur’s chariot is followed by encounters with Tarzan, King Kong, a soggy singer in the rain, and finally a sad old man who persuades Anna and Henry to trade their newest Christmas present, a sled (“Rosebud”), for a snow globe. The references are identified and described at the end, but not in enough detail to spark much interest in child readers, who will most likely be familiar only with Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and, perhaps, the original King Kong, certainly not The Seven Samurai or Potemkin. Older film buffs will recognize both scenes and stars, even though Elling’s dark, indistinct figures tend toward caricature. Like the previous tours, this is more about name-dropping than real appreciation. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-87614-009-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Nolen and Nelson offer a smaller, but no less gifted counterpart to Big Jabe (2000) in this new tall tale. Shortly after being born one stormy night, Rose thanks her parents, picks a name, and gathers lightning into a ball—all of which is only a harbinger of feats to come. Decked out in full cowboy gear and oozing self-confidence from every pore, Rose cuts a diminutive, but heroic figure in Nelson’s big, broad Western scenes. Though she carries a twisted iron rod as dark as her skin and ropes clouds with fencing wire, Rose overcomes her greatest challenge—a pair of rampaging twisters—not with strength, but with a lullaby her parents sang. After turning tornadoes into much-needed rain clouds, Rose rides away, “that mighty, mighty song pressing on the bull’s-eye that was set at the center of her heart.” Throughout, she shows a reflective bent that gives her more dimension than most tall-tale heroes: a doff of the Stetson to her and her creators. (author’s note) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-216472-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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