Hoping to add Br’er Rabbit’s to the suite of familiar folk-tale character portraits exhibited in The Mysterious Collection of Dr. David Harleyson (2004), the porcine painter sets out for rural Sandy Creek. As related in a series of letters home, the visitors get a warm country welcome from Br’er Fox, Br’er Bear and other local residents, who, in exchange for portraits of their own, trot out good-humored renditions of the Tar Baby story and other well-known instances of the elusive lagomorph’s trickery. Cassels interleaves smaller scenes of each encounter with the handsomely finished, full-page formal sittings—depicting Br’er Fox, for instance, with a stained tome entitled What to Do with Tar, Br’er Wolf in a natty grey suit and, at last, a prosperous-looking Br’er Rabbit sitting comfortably on his porch. Yet another capture and escape later, all gather (more or less) convivially for a group showing. Closing with a recipe for blackberry pie and an appreciation of Joel Chandler Harris’s tales (though not specific source notes), this makes an amiable introduction to Van Dyke Parks’s Jump! (1986), illustrated by Barry Moser, Julius Lester’s Tales of Uncle Remus (1987), illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and their sequels. (Picture book/folktales. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8027-9556-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
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