``All her life'' Mrs. Tillby has lived in the same country house, wondering what it would be like to live elsewhere. At last she climbs into her old green truck and takes off; she visits her children in the city, at the seaside, in the mountains, then tries living alone in forest and desert. Each time she moves on, missing that feeling of being home and not knowing what she wants. On her way back to her first house, she sees a small silver trailer, and it's love at first sight; she hooks it to the pickup, and from then on, wherever she travels, ``Mrs. Tillby is always home, and she is always someplace else.'' About, and perhaps for, adults, this story may leave many readers unmoved. Hazy golden light suffuses Root's tidy, comfortable gouaches; Mrs. Tillby is a well-kept, silver-haired figure, going her own way without fuss. Saul (Peter's Song, 1992, not reviewed) never develops the layers of experience that make Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius (1982) or Gloria Houston's My Great- Aunt Arizona (1992) so special; the theme of home not necessarily being linked to a particular place is explored in a more explicit way in Floyd Cooper's Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes (1994). Endearing, but also remote. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-689-80273-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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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