A thrillingly melodramatic tale kept close to its Navajo roots.
Illustrations incorporating images drawn from traditional sand painting and pop culture alike accompany a new Navajo/English version of the early exploits of a pair of mythic heroes.
Kristofic opens with the expressed hope that he’s telling the story “in an accurate and respectful way without exposing too much of its sacredness.” He begins the tale by establishing the oppression of the Emergence People by vaguely described but monstrous naayéé’. Then Changing Woman gives birth to twins who grow up to overcome various challenges on the way to defeating Yé’iitsoh, a metal-clad giant, and earning their names: Monster Slayer (Naayéé’ neizghání) and He Who Cuts Life Out of the Enemy (Na’ídígishí). In James’ vigorous pictures, the Twins, their father, the Sun (Jó’honaa’éí), and their robotlike adversary are usually human figures with the rippling thews and poses of comic-book superheroes—but transformations occur frequently; when placed in the sky, the Sun takes an abstract form, for instance. A thrillingly scary, half-human Spider Woman headlines a cast of other stylized figures. The author doesn’t connect these Twins with others from pre-Columbian New World mythology, but he supplies a prefatory note on the cultural significance of the colors in the pictures. Throughout both the Navajo text and the English translation placed beneath, small marker icons are placed in equivalent spots so that readers can compare words and phrases.
A thrillingly melodramatic tale kept close to its Navajo roots. (Bilingual folk tale. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8263-5533-1
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Univ. of New Mexico
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Readers will be waiting to see how Charlie faces his next challenge in a series that marks a lovely change of pace from the...
Charlie Bumpers is doomed. The one teacher he never wanted in the whole school turns out to be his fourth-grade teacher.
Charlie recalls third grade, when he accidentally hit the scariest teacher in the whole school with his sneaker. “I know all about you, Charlie Bumpers,” she says menacingly on the first day of fourth grade. Now, in addition to all the hardships of starting school, he has gotten off on the wrong foot with her. Charlie’s dry and dramatic narrative voice clearly reveals the inner life of a 9-year-old—the glass is always half empty, especially in light of a series of well-intentioned events gone awry. It’s quite a litany: “Hitting Mrs. Burke in the head with the sneaker. The messy desk. The swinging on the door. The toilet paper. And now this—the shoe on the roof.” Harley has teamed once again with illustrator Gustavson (Lost and Found, 2012) to create a real-life world in which a likable kid must face the everyday terrors of childhood: enormous bullies, looming teachers and thick gym coaches with huge pointing fingers. Into this series opener, Harley magically weaves the simple lesson that people, even teachers, can surprise you.
Readers will be waiting to see how Charlie faces his next challenge in a series that marks a lovely change of pace from the sarcasm of Wimpy Kid. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-56145-732-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
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