Young Helen Keller cannot hear, see or speak, but she knows the scent of vanilla cake coming out of the oven, the feel of her mother’s fancy silk dress and that the dog is tense because the horses are outside. A stranger arrives, one who traces shapes into her hand, each day, all the time. Helen finally connects these shapes with meaning, and spells “w-a-t-e-r” back to her teacher. She learns quickly, even telling the flowers apart by texture and scent, until she can spell, and define, the love that connects her to her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Ransome’s sunlit colors and warm textures indoors and out make an excellent visual counterpoint to the rhythmic text, though too often they do not capture the young Keller’s glowing beauty. More problematic from a nonfiction standpoint is the textual interpolation of Helen’s thoughts as she puzzles out the world, but the device works well to evoke her shuttered-in world to sighted and hearing children. A nice introduction to a fascinating life for the very youngest of readers. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-057074-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Collins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2008
Rick the bear and his pal, Jack the rabbit, star in their second emergent reader, featuring just one or two short and simple sentences per page. Rick is sick in bed and Jack tries to help by bringing hot tea and an ice pack, by sitting on Rick’s tummy, and finally by curling up next to Rick for a nap. McPhail’s appealing animal characters are full of expression as always, with the pair of devoted friends featured in circular watercolor-and-ink illustrations alternating with pages of text. The actual story is just 16 pages long, with the remaining pages devoted to a follow-up activity (creating a friendship award), a page of discussion questions, author biography, and two pages of information about the Green Light Readers series, including a list of titles. This format seems intended for classroom use and includes guided reading and Reading Recovery levels for teachers. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-15-205091-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Green Light/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2004
This second early biography of Cousteau in a year echoes Jennifer Berne’s Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau (2008), illustrated by Eric Puybaret, in offering visuals that are more fanciful than informational, but also complements it with a focus less on the early life of the explorer and eco-activist than on his later inventions and achievements. In full-bleed scenes that are often segmented and kaleidoscopic, Yaccarino sets his hook-nosed subject amid shoals of Impressionistic fish and other marine images, rendered in multiple layers of thinly applied, imaginatively colored paint. His customarily sharp, geometric lines take on the wavy translucence of undersea shapes with a little bit of help from the airbrush. Along with tracing Cousteau’s undersea career from his first, life-changing, pair of goggles and the later aqualung to his minisub Sea Flea, the author pays tribute to his revolutionary film and TV work, and his later efforts to call attention to the effects of pollution. Cousteau’s enduring fascination with the sea comes through clearly, and can’t help sparking similar feelings in readers. (chronology, source list) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85573-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2009
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