Wholesome family values are served up in this story of one family's survival of the great flood of the Midwest in 1993. Sarajean is as tenacious as her grandmother in her resistance to the rising waters of her beloved Mississippi. When possessions, including Sarajean's dog, are moved to higher ground, her family staunchly ``camps out'' on the second story to weather the storm. When the levee breaks, they are forced to evacuate. In true Laura Ingalls Wilder style, they learn the true meaning of home. This is not high-action disaster drama; it is social commentary via the portrait of an individual family's efforts and contribution within a community. Appropriately dull grays and blues convey the damp, dreary heaviness of the skies and water-soaked landscape in a much more serious take on floods than found in George Ella Lyon's lively Come a Tide (1990). Although the home-is-where-the-heart-is message is heavy-handed, it's also enduring. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-688-13919-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1997
This reimagined telling has an engaging charm that rings true.
An imagining of an unlikely real-life episode in the life of absurdist Franz Kafka.
Theule follows the outline of the account: When Kafka meets an unhappy girl in a Berlin park in 1923 and learns her doll is lost, Kafka writes a series of letters from Soupsy, the doll, to Irma, the girl. The real letters and the girl’s identity have been lost to history; the invented letters describe a dazzling variety of adventures for Soupsy. Unfortunately, as the letters increase in excitement, Kafka’s health declines (he would die of tuberculosis in June 1924), and he must find a way to end Soupsy’s adventures in a positive way. In an author’s note, readers learn that Kafka chose to write that Soupsy was getting married. Theule instead opts to send the doll on an Antarctic expedition. Irma gets the message that she can do anything, and the final image shows her riding a camel, a copy of Metamorphosis peeking from a satchel. While kids may not care about Kafka, the short relationship between the writer and the little girl will keep their interest. Realizing that an adult can care so much about a child met in the park is empowering. The stylized illustrations, especially those set in the chilly Berlin fall, resemble woodcuts with a German expressionist look. The doll’s adventures look a little sweeter, with more red and blue added to the brown palette of the German scenes. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 23% of actual size.)
This reimagined telling has an engaging charm that rings true. (biographical note, bibliography) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11632-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
A prehistoric boy leaves his cave in search of warmth and discovers there’s no cave like his own. When Boy awakes in the cold morning of his home cave, his parents invite him to share their blankets. Boy doesn’t want to share and heads into the Stone Age landscape to find his own warm place. His search leads to a tree branch in a warm forest, but the resident saber-toothed tiger refuses to share. Boy moves on to warm grass, but the local woolly mammoth chases him away. Next, Boy finds warm red rocks, but the inhabiting dinosaur ejects him. Then Boy locates a warm mountain that turns into a hot volcano that sends him racing home, happy to share his parent’s blankets. Simple text and marvelous illustrations reminiscent of prehistoric cave paintings showcase Boy’s diminutive, solitary figure against a vast, empty world. Perfect for young adventurers about to enter their own brave new worlds. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-65106-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004
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