The subtitle and cover set the tone, writing style, and scene for this breezy, fun, lighthearted read that quite naturally folds in contemporary issues of breast cancer fears and the meaning of intolerance. Told in diary format like its predecessor (The Diary of Melanie Martin, 2000), Mel’s bubbly personality recounts the family’s summer trip to Amsterdam when her mom, an art teacher, receives a grant to study van Gogh. Mel’s BFF (Best Friend Forever), Cecily, is invited to go along while her mom undergoes and recovers from breast cancer surgery. Mel’s excitement over having Cecily on the trip quickly turns to annoyance when her best friend pays more attention to Matt, her six-and-a-half-year-old brother. Mel’s daily diary entries recount the week’s adventures that include lost luggage (for days), Matt’s lost baby tooth, and her sense of loss of parental approval and feeling left out. The diary device works especially well: Mel’s “quippy” poems are clever and funny and express her feelings; she phonetically spells out Dutch words; and her penchant for using words three times for emphasis are all so, so, so right for the voice of the character. The venue of Amsterdam is an opportunity for Mel to discover the Dutch masters, to relate passages from Anne Frank’s diary to her own life, and to compare the Dutch ways of doing things to home in New York City. This can stand alone without having read the first and the ending leaves the door open for more stories. Go, go, go girl. (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: May 14, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-82195-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
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
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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