Tear up your T-shirts, unravel old sweaters, warm up your fingers, and create some handcrafted fun for yourself, for...
Nimble fingers can learn how to felt, spin, weave, knit, and crochet a wide variety of wearable and useful objects.
Carlson, an author of many craft titles for children, has organized this how-to by type of material and provides step-by-step directions that are accompanied by line drawings. She provides some background information, a list of required materials, and specific steps to create the projects. Starting with felting and moving on to knotting and braiding, spinning, weaving, knitting, and crocheting, Carlson also includes pages on dying, recycling, and community activities. The materials that are required can be home-fashioned, such as using chopsticks to make knitting needles, as an alternative to purchasing them ready-made. She is careful to note when adult supervision is necessary, as in dying projects, and concludes with a note to adults about the many benefits of fabric and yarn crafts. From slippers to tote bags and from friendship bracelets to comfort dolls, there is something for almost anyone wanting to learn how to create from these very tactile sources.
Tear up your T-shirts, unravel old sweaters, warm up your fingers, and create some handcrafted fun for yourself, for friends, and for those in need of small comforts. (note to adults) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61373-400-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.
One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Starting with a lonely slice of pizza pictured on the cover and the first page, Thornhill launches into a wide-ranging study of the history and culture of food—where it comes from, how to eat it and what our food industries are doing to the planet. It’s a lot to hang on that slice of pizza, but there are plenty of interesting tidbits here, from Clarence Birdseye’s experiments with frozen food to how mad cow disease causes the brain to turn spongy to industrial food production and global warming. Unfortunately, the volume is designed like a bad high-school yearbook. Most pages are laid out in text boxes, each containing a paragraph on a discrete topic, but with little in the way of an organizing theme to tie together the content of the page or spread. Too many colors, too much jumbled-together information and total reliance on snippets of information make this a book for young readers more interested in browsing than reading. Kids at the upper edge of the book's range would be better served by Richie Chevat's adaptation of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2009). (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897349-96-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Maple Tree Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
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