The War of 1812 is the period setting for this transitional chapter book from Caldecott Medalist McCully (The Orphan Singer, 2001, etc.). The story is based on a wartime incident that occurred in the Maryland coastal town of St. Michaels. McCully utilizes the facts about an invasion of British troops along with a legend of the townspeople hanging lanterns from roofs and treetops to trick the British into missing their targets. She uses several real military men as characters and invents an independent girl named Caroline and her friend Robert as her main characters. Caroline can run “faster than anyone else in town under fifteen,” putting her talent and fearless nature to good effect several times by running messages between commanders and running the flag back to town during a battle. McCully does a fine job of making the battle scene exciting without glorifying war or violence, and the devices of running messages and hanging the lanterns give Caroline and Robert a real part in the military maneuvers. McCully’s watercolor illustrations are full of interesting uniforms and period details, and she deftly handles the challenge of illustrating many scenes that occur at night. One rather jarring aspect of her art is Caroline’s unexplained short-cropped hair, which perhaps is intended to reflect her unconventional nature, but which is out of place with the time period. (author’s note) (Easy reader. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-028728-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Mary, Remember, and Bartholomew Allerton were among the youngest on the Mayflower's first voyage; the words here tell how, with the other newcomers, they suffer tremendous losses but gradually come to view Plymouth as home. Meanwhile, the author's paintings expand considerably on the text with a fanciful map of the journey, a cutaway view of the ship, and crowd scenes of planting, harvest, and thanksgiving. The children, introduced in the first paragraph, don't appear in the illustrations, and are not the focus of any picture, until well into the book. The ongoing disparity between text and art is unsettling; moreover, the text is often clumsy: After the death of Mary—last of the original group—the narrative leaps back to a confusing, incomplete explanation of the Pilgrims' origins. The panoramic watercolors are attractive, with expertly composed, cinematic scenes, but the text, pursuing its separate agenda, regrettably never catches up. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-02-742643-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992
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