Kids won’t recognize the homage to René Magritte or the elements of King Midas and "The Fisherman and His Wife," they’ll...
What painter wouldn’t be thrilled if everything he painted became real?
Say hello to Mr. Renny, a likable, bug-eyed, floppy-eared dog artist, wearing a one-button yellow jacket over a red-and-white striped tunic. When no one buys his paintings at the market, a strange man tells him to eat the apple in his painting; it turns real, and suddenly all of Mr. Renny’s paintings spring to life. With his new magical touch, he paints all of the things he’s ever wanted: hot dogs, desserts, a car, a ship, etc. However, when his friend Rose wants to buy a real painting, he explains that she can’t. How to fix his dilemma? Aha, he paints the man who began the whole thing to reverse the charm. Everything vanishes, and Rose gets a special painting (a rose). Whimsical illustrations bring the story to life. All of the characters are bug-eyed animals except for the mysterious, bowler-topped man. Scenes are dotted with such clever details as an alligator with a baby buggy holding two watermelons, an elephant with a Burberry plaid wheeled cart and a giraffe driving a speedboat. The appealing cover of Mr. Renny with paintbrush and palette, flying in an airplane will draw attention.
Kids won’t recognize the homage to René Magritte or the elements of King Midas and "The Fisherman and His Wife," they’ll just be busy giggling over the animated images. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-8775-7920-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work.
A young spinach hater becomes a spinach lover after she has to grow her own in a class garden.
Unable to trade away the seed packet she gets from her teacher for tomatoes, cukes or anything else more palatable, Sylvia reluctantly plants and nurtures a pot of the despised veggie then transplants it outside in early spring. By the end of school, only the plot’s lettuce, radishes and spinach are actually ready to eat (talk about a badly designed class project!)—and Sylvia, once she nerves herself to take a nibble, discovers that the stuff is “not bad.” She brings home an armful and enjoys it from then on in every dish: “And that was the summer Sylvia Spivens said yes to spinach.” Raff uses unlined brushwork to give her simple cartoon illustrations a pleasantly freehand, airy look, and though Pryor skips over the (literally, for spinach) gritty details in both the story and an afterword, she does cover gardening basics in a simple and encouraging way.
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9836615-1-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Readers to Eaters
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
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