A straightforward adaptation with appealing illustrations but lacking in emotional resonance.
Ellinas introduces young readers to the characters and key plot points of a beloved Shakespearean comedy.
Feste the Fool tells the story of Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian, who are separated after a shipwreck. To stay safe, Viola disguises herself as a man called Cesario. She’s hired by Duke Orsino to convey his passionate messages to the grieving Countess Olivia. Cesario falls in love with Orsino, while Olivia falls for Cesario. Secondary characters and plotlines all get their due, including Sir Toby and Maria’s plot against Malvolio. As in the play, Sebastian eventually returns, all confusions are resolved, Viola drops her Cesario persona, and nearly everyone pairs off happily. Watercolor illustrations depict period-appropriate costumes and settings, with characters theatrically facing readers. Most characters have pale or tan skin; Olivia has brown skin and tight curls, and Orsino is tan with wavy black hair. Feste’s first-person narration is prescriptive, leaving little room for readers’ own interpretations, and while young people will get a firm sense of the story, they may not be all that engaged. Though the pervasive theme of fools and foolery is an obvious one, framing anyone who “did not see through Cesario’s disguise” as foolish is a missed opportunity for a queerer reading of the Orsino/Cesario/Olivia love triangle.
A straightforward adaptation with appealing illustrations but lacking in emotional resonance. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781536231502
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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