by David Almond ; illustrated by Lizzy Stewart ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2024
A meditation on art and family, rich in language and feeling.
In a sweet, tender exchange, an aging English puppeteer passes his vision on to a young kindred soul.
In a nod to Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, the child-sized puppet old Silvester assembles one day from mismatched parts magically comes to life. He learns to talk, requesting “jam!”—and with loving care and assistance is able to walk well enough to go on excursions to the park. There, Silvester hastily dubs Puppet “Kenneth” in response to the curious query of Fleur, an observant child. Fleur’s mum has long been a fan of Silvester’s puppet theater, and the foursome gather at her cottage, where Fleur delightedly makes puppets from twigs and other found materials and entices Silvester to help her put on an impromptu show in which two lost children drive off a monster. In keeping with the narrative’s measured lightness, Stewart’s fluid brush and line work lends warm informality to the figures in her mix of tight, close-up full-page illustrations and sequential panels. Though Puppet as depicted is plainly wooden (the human cast includes varied skin tones), Fleur greets him with casual friendliness, and everyone else expresses, at most, mild puzzlement; even some boys who initially mock his gait later apologize. “Didn’t I tell you it’s a lovely world?” says Silvester to his last and greatest creation—and it is, for even though fear and tragedy are real, Almond shows readers a world that’s “shambolic and beautiful, and tentative and brave.”
A meditation on art and family, rich in language and feeling. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781536239171
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by David Almond
BOOK REVIEW
by David Almond ; illustrated by Gill Smith
BOOK REVIEW
by David Almond ; illustrated by Laura Carlin
BOOK REVIEW
by David Almond ; illustrated by Marta Altés
Awards & Accolades
Likes
10
Our Verdict
GET IT
Google Rating
by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1952
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
Awards & Accolades
Likes
10
Our Verdict
GET IT
Google Rating
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
Share your opinion of this book
More by E.B. White
BOOK REVIEW
by E.B. White & illustrated by Maggie Kneen
BOOK REVIEW
by E.B. White illustrated by Fred Marcellino
BOOK REVIEW
by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
by Kekla Magoon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 16, 2018
Heartening and hopeful, a love letter to black male youth grasping the desires within them, absorbing the worlds around...
Cooler-than-cool newcomer Styx Malone takes the more-sheltered brothers Caleb and Bobby Gene on a mischievous, path-altering, summer adventure of a lifetime as they embrace the extraordinary possibilities beyond the everyday in rural Indiana.
Readers may think an adventure such as they’ll find here wouldn’t be possible in the present day; this story takes place outside, where nature, know-how, creativity, and curiosity rule. Creeks, dirt roads, buried treasures, and more make up the landscape in Sutton, Indiana. Younger brother Caleb narrates, letting readers know from the outset that he’s tired of his dad’s racially tinged determination that they be safely ordinary: “I don’t want to be ordinary. I want to be…the other thing.” With Styx Malone around, Caleb and Bobby Gene will sure figure out what that “other thing” can become. The three black adolescents are enchanted with the miracle of the Great Escalator Trade, the mythic one-thing-leads-to-another bartering scheme that just might get them farther from Sutton than they’ve ever dreamed. As they get deeper and deeper into cahoots with Styx, they begin to notice that Styx harbors some secret ambitions of his own, further twisting this grand summer journey. “How do you move through the world knowing that you’re special, when no one else can see it?” begs the soul of this novel.
Heartening and hopeful, a love letter to black male youth grasping the desires within them, absorbing the worlds around them, striving to be more otherwise than ordinary. Please share. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1595-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
More by Kekla Magoon
BOOK REVIEW
by Kekla Magoon ; illustrated by Brittany Jackson
BOOK REVIEW
by Kekla Magoon
BOOK REVIEW
by Kekla Magoon & Cynthia Leitich Smith ; illustrated by Molly Murakami
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.