A concluding free-verse poem celebrating the benefits of fair trade and environmental consciousness will resonate more with...
Isabella, an aspiring writer and daughter of rose-farm workers in Ecuador, relates the story of her family’s livelihood.
Isabella is very excited because her school will be commemorating “Pachamama” (Mother Earth) with a special assembly that will include original stories and poems. The students begin their assignment, and the teacher is impressed with Isabella’s introduction about Ecuador’s continual sunshine, which helps the flowers grow so well. Isabella then recounts a time when her parents worked in a rose farm that used insecticides that caused illness and strong headaches, especially for her mother. Healthier and happier days occurred when her parents began work in a new rose farm that practices fair trade and grows roses organically. Isabella’s writing continues with basic section headings to explain the concept of fair trade, how the roses are sold around the world and why celebrating Ecuador’s Pachamama is important. Her composition parallels her overall narration that's distinguished by a standard typeface opposite the child-oriented look of her written story. Colorful folk-art–style drawings in marker and gouache add an authenticity to this South American tale. Unfortunately, the important message about environmental concerns and equitable working conditions dominates, leaving little story for children to latch onto.
A concluding free-verse poem celebrating the benefits of fair trade and environmental consciousness will resonate more with readers than the mostly instructive text. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: June 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-88010-731-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Steiner Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent.
Published in magazines, never seen since / Now resurrected for pleasure intense / Versified episodes numbering four / Featuring Marco, and Horton and more!
All of the entries in this follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories (2011) involve a certain amount of sharp dealing. Horton carries a Kwuggerbug through crocodile-infested waters and up a steep mountain because “a deal is a deal”—and then is cheated out of his promised share of delicious Beezlenuts. Officer Pat heads off escalating, imagined disasters on Mulberry Street by clubbing a pesky gnat. Marco (originally met on that same Mulberry Street) concocts a baroque excuse for being late to school. In the closer, a smooth-talking Grinch (not the green sort) sells a gullible Hoobub a piece of string. In a lively introduction, uber-fan Charles D. Cohen (The Seuss, The Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss, 2002) provides publishing histories, places characters and settings in Seussian context, and offers insights into, for instance, the origin of “Grinch.” Along with predictably engaging wordplay—“He climbed. He grew dizzy. His ankles grew numb. / But he climbed and he climbed and he clum and he clum”—each tale features bright, crisply reproduced renditions of its original illustrations. Except for “The Hoobub and the Grinch,” which has been jammed into a single spread, the verses and pictures are laid out in spacious, visually appealing ways.
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-38298-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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There’s lots to see and do in this big city.
A set of panoramic views of the urban environment: inside and out, above and belowground, at street level and high overhead.
Thanks to many flaps, pull tabs, spinners, and sliders, viewers can take peeks into stores and apartments, see foliage change through the seasons in a park, operate elevators, make buildings rise and come down, visit museums and municipal offices, take in a film, join a children’s parade, marvel as Christmas decorations go up—even look in on a wedding and a funeral. Balicevic populates each elevated cartoon view with dozens of tiny but individualized residents diverse in age, skin tone, hair color and style, dress, and occupation. He also adds such contemporary touches as an electrical charging station for cars, surveillance cameras, smartphones, and fiber optic cables. Moreover, many flaps conceal diagrammatic views of infrastructure elements like water treatment facilities and sources of electrical power or how products ranging from plate glass and paper to bread, cheese, and T-shirts are manufactured (realistically, none of the workers in the last are white). Baumann’s commentary is largely dispensable, but she does worthily observe on the big final pop-up spread that cities are always changing—often, nowadays, becoming more environmentally friendly.
There’s lots to see and do in this big city. (Informational novelty. 6-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 979-1-02760-079-3
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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