A potentially humorous Halloween caper is left stranded in the author’s latest effort. The story starts with the formidable Miss Irma Birmbaum—an unsinkable retro presence as drawn by Passen (Uncle’s New Suit, 1992, etc.)—giving her class of students the business: “No talking! Pass your homework assignments forward. Open your books to page 24. Read!” It so happened to be Halloween, but did that stop Miss Birmbaum from ladling on the homework? Forget about it. After the kids shuffle off with their math and history and spelling assignments, Miss Birmbaum stays behind to correct tests, and then heads for home. Taking a detour, she has a close encounter with a spaceship, which results in her being morphed into a fifty-foot teacher. Heading back to town, she runs into her students, who are out trick-or-treating. “Do your parents know you’re wandering about at this unearthly hour? I'm taking you all to the principal.” She arrives at the principal’s house and hands the kids over, also noting that they haven’t done their homework. But the principal knows how to put a 50-foot teacher in her place: “Good grief, woman! Who gives homework on Halloween? Don't you remember what it was like to be a child?” Presto, Miss Birmbaum remembers and becomes sweet as candy herself. Next day, too. That's pretty hard to swallow, as excuses go, and deeply unsatisfying, like driving in a car that runs out of gas: the sudden stillness is disconcerting. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8050-6100-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area.
A pair of cardinals is separated and then reunited when their tree home is moved to New York City to serve as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
The male cardinal, Red, and his female partner, Lulu, enjoy their home in a huge evergreen tree located in the front yard of a small house in a pleasant neighborhood. When the tree is cut down and hauled away on a truck, Lulu is still inside the tree. Red follows the truck into the city but loses sight of it and gets lost. The birds are reunited when Red finds the tree transformed with colored lights and serving as the Christmas tree in a complex of city buildings. When the tree is removed after Christmas, the birds find a new home in a nearby park. Each following Christmas, the pair visit the new tree erected in the same location. Attractive illustrations effectively handle some difficult challenges of dimension and perspective and create a glowing, magical atmosphere for the snowy Christmas trees. The original owners of the tree are a multiracial family with two children; the father is African-American and the mother is white. The family is in the background in the early pages, reappearing again skating on the rink at Rockefeller Center with their tree in the background.
A touching, beautifully illustrated story of greatest interest to those in the New York City area. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7733-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for.
An overview of the modern African-American holiday.
This book arrives at a time when black people in the United States have had intraracial—some serious, some snarky—conversations about Kwanzaa’s relevance nowadays, from its patchwork inspiration that flattens the cultural diversity of the African continent to a single festive story to, relatedly, the earnest blacker-than-thou pretentiousness surrounding it. Both the author and consultant Keith A. Mayes take great pains—and in painfully simplistic language—to provide a context that attempts to refute the internal arguments as much as it informs its intended audience. In fact, Mayes says in the endnotes that young people are Kwanzaa’s “largest audience and most important constituents” and further extends an invitation to all races and ages to join the winter celebration. However, his “young people represent the future” counterpoint—and the book itself—really responds to an echo of an argument, as black communities have moved the conversation out to listen to African communities who critique the holiday’s loose “African-ness” and deep American-ness and moved on to commemorate holidays that have a more historical base in black people’s experiences in the United States, such as Juneteenth. In this context, the explications of Kwanzaa’s principles and symbols and the smattering of accompanying activities feel out of touch.
A good-enough introduction to a contested festivity but one that’s not in step with the community it’s for. (resources, bibliography, glossary, afterword) (Nonfiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2849-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: National Geographic Kids
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
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