A twist on the traditional folkloric motif goes on too long and loses its way and its audience. The rather violent tale set on the Arabian Sea begins with an unnamed fisherman pulling a genie’s bottle from the water. Instead of granting him three wishes, the genie, enraged by his long wait, announces that he will kill the man instead. The fisherman replies that repaying kindness with evil will bring down the punishments of Heaven and Fate, and launches into a story to explain. That story, of a healer who cures a king but makes him look foolish in the process, is set off from the first by a different text font, but not by any variance in illustration. The vibrant pastels, while interesting in their own right, consistently fail to capture the characters, who all look the same except for the purple genie. When the king threatens to kill the healer, the healer launches into his own story, of a prince who kills his faithful hunting dog when he feels that the dog has spoiled his sport. The king, however, does not listen to the healer, but kills him, too (dying by poison in the process), which brings us back to the original fisherman and the genie. “That,” says the fisherman, “is the story of how evil follows evil.” Unfortunately, none of the depressing stories has anything to do with the genie, who bellows in ALL CAPS some fairly standard threats until the fisherman tricks him into returning to his bottle. Better trickster stories and better genie stories abound. Text-heavy and without magic, this one can be passed by. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-83399-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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