Donal and his wife, Sorcha, live on the mountain high above the village of Killaloe. With the death of their beloved “boyo,” their hearts become closed, as does their door. One winter afternoon, there comes a pounding and a shouting to open the door with the plea, “You’ll not be turning a man away in a cold like this!” Hesitatingly, Sorcha lets the peddler in with the warning he must be gone when Donal arrives. Two more peddlers come and join the first. When Donal returns, he promises to guide them to Killaloe after a smoke of the pipe. As they smoke, each of the peddlers has a story to tell, each of a young boy going to Fairy Land and returning. The first is a Rip Van Winkle variant; the second returns in the moment, though it seems to the boy a long time, and the third lives a long life of a priest, but returns the same age as he left. “It’s in the coming back that the wonder lies,” says Sorcha. With the storytelling finished, Donal says they should stay the night. Sorcha and Donal stay up, telling stories to each other of their lost boyo. “Sure, that a story can unbar and unbolt a heart, that is the greatest wonder of them all.” An afterword explains that the four stories have been combined to indicate how powerful and comforting storytelling can be. The author has the Irish lilt in the writing that will afford storytellers ease in the telling. Full-page illustrations opposite the text are acrylic on canvas with a thin brown frame to give a definition to the somber pictures. They are suitable to the stories and remind the reader of the darkened, candlelit atmosphere of the cottage. These stories within a story can be enjoyed as a good read-aloud as well as for storytelling. (Folktale. 7-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-8050-6516-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2002
SEEN & HEARD
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
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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