A light, slight fantasy.
Ghost cat Sailor Boy is a faithful companion even after the end.
Miss Maggie McCullen, a red-haired white woman, has been in charge of the Port Carrick lighthouse for 42 years. Siamese cat Sailor Boy used to live with her. When he died, he decided to stay with her. He seems to retain his corporeality but can choose when to be visible. They go about their days pretty much as they did when he was alive, and each night he helps her light the light that keeps the boats around Port Carrick safe from the rocks. People on the mainland think Miss Maggie must be lonely, but they don’t know about Sailor Boy. The occasional paying visitors to the island don’t know about Sailor Boy (even when he invisibly taunts them with ghostly purrs or ankle scratches). When Miss Maggie’s niece Cissie Curry, also white, comes to visit and must stay the night due to a storm, Miss Maggie sprains her ankle on the stairs. Sailor Boy must get Cissie’s attention and help her light the light. Can he do it? This is an odd offering from the prolific Bunting. Barry’s watercolor illustrations in sepia-muted colors are appealing, but the tale they help to tell is slight. His ghostly nature makes Sailor Boy interesting, but it’s his ability to act like a living cat that saves the day (or night), which will likely strike readers as contradictory.
A light, slight fantasy. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-58536-993-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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