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FALLING DOWN THE PAGE

Name: FALLING DOWN THE PAGE
Author: Georgia Heard
ISBN: 978-1-59643-220-8

edited by Georgia Heard ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2009

Smart and fitfully chilling, but puerile St. Ebury school sometimes seems less like a setting than a wallow.

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Part mystery, part exploration of adolescent psychology, McAdam’s second novel (Some Great Thing, 2004) revolves around the disappearance of a teenaged girl from an elite Canadian boarding school.

Handsome, easygoing, effortlessly self-assured Julius is the charmed son of an American diplomat. His romance with the beautiful Fallon (Fall for short) provokes the envy of classmates, especially awkward, cerebral Noel, his senior-year roommate. Thrown together by circumstance, the boys develop an ad hoc friendship, and Noel becomes a confidant for the besotted Julius. When Julius, confined after a prank, enlists his roommate as a romantic go-between, Noel’s fascination with the golden couple metastasizes into obsession. Then, just before winter vacation, Fall goes missing. It takes a while for her disappearance to make ripples beyond the cloistered world of the St. Ebury School, but eventually the police are summoned and suspicion falls on the roommates. In the novel’s second half we see both boys’ self-mythologies implode. The story is told mainly in their voices: Noel’s chilly, careful narrative contrasts with his roommate’s bubbly, almost aggressively superficial stream of consciousness. Noel’s sections have flashes of William Trevor–like darkness and insight, and the plot does eventually build momentum, but the police investigation of Fall’s disappearance is oddly halfhearted and low-key, a circumstance that serves the plot more than the mandates of law enforcement.

Smart and fitfully chilling, but puerile St. Ebury school sometimes seems less like a setting than a wallow.

Pub Date: March 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-59643-220-8

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
WELCOME TO THE WONDER HOUSE
by Rebecca Kai Dotlich & Georgia Heard ; illustrated by Deborah Freedman

- BOOK REVIEW
MY THOUGHTS ARE CLOUDS
by Georgia Heard ; illustrated by Isabel Roxas

- BOOK REVIEW
BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT!
by Georgia Heard ; illustrated by Aaron DeWitt

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DIGGER, DOZER, DUMPER

by Hope Vestergaard ; illustrated by David Slonim ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 2013

While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems.

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Rhyming poems introduce children to anthropomorphized trucks of all sorts, as well as the jobs that they do.

Adorable multiethnic children are the drivers of these 16 trucks—from construction equipment to city trucks, rescue vehicles and a semi—easily standing in for readers, a point made very clear on the final spread. Varying rhyme schemes and poem lengths help keep readers’ attention. For the most part, the rhymes and rhythms work, as in this, from “Cement Mixer”: “No time to wait; / he can’t sit still. / He has to beg your pardon. / For if he dawdles on the way, / his slushy load will harden.” Slonim’s trucks each sport an expressive pair of eyes, but the anthropomorphism stops there, at least in the pictures—Vestergaard sometimes takes it too far, as in “Bulldozer”: “He’s not a bully, either, / although he’s big and tough. / He waits his turn, plays well with friends, / and pushes just enough.” A few trucks’ jobs get short shrift, to mixed effect: “Skid-Steer Loader” focuses on how this truck moves without the typical steering wheel, but “Semi” runs with a royalty analogy and fails to truly impart any knowledge. The acrylic-and-charcoal artwork, set against white backgrounds, keeps the focus on the trucks and the jobs they are doing.

While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)

Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-7636-5078-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
POTTY ANIMALS
by Hope Vestergaard and illustrated by Valeria Petrone

- BOOK REVIEW
I DON’T WANT TO CLEAN MY ROOM
by Hope Vestergaard & illustrated by Carol Koeller

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN A MONSTER SAYS BOO?
by Hope Vestergaard & illustrated by Maggie Smith

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LIZARDS, FROGS, AND POLLIWOGS

POEMS AND PAINTINGS

by Douglas Florian & illustrated by Douglas Florian ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2001

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“It’s wise to stay clear / Of the dangerous cobra / All months of the year, / Including Octobra.” But it wouldn’t be wise to stay clear of Florian’s latest poetry collection, sixth in his successful series of witty poems and paintings about creatures of all sorts (Mammalabilia: Poems and Paintings, 2000, etc.). This volume includes 21 short poems about reptiles and amphibians, including common creatures such as the bullfrog and the box turtle and more exotic specimens such as the komodo dragon and the red-eyed tree frog. Teachers will like the way the rhyming poems integrate into elementary science lessons, imparting some basic zoological facts along with the giggles, and kids will love the poems because they’re clever and funny in a style reminiscent of Ogden Nash, full of wordplay and sly humor. Florian’s impressionistic full-page illustrations are done in watercolors on primed, brown paper bags, often offering another layer of humor, as in the orange newt reading the Newt News on the cover. A first choice for the poetry shelves in all libraries, this collection is toadally terrific. (Poetry. 4-10)