An engrossing look at a war that sacrificed both horses and people.
Morpurgo adapts his 1982 novel for a younger audience.
Albert and Joey, his red bay, are bonded “like brothers.” Joey responds to Albert’s calls, and together, they work on the family farm in Devon, plowing, sowing, and harvesting. When war breaks out in Europe, Albert’s father, in need of money for the farm, sells Joey to the military. Albert, devastated, vows to one day reunite with Joey. He angrily leaves home and enlists in the army, lying about his age. Ensuing spreads depict Albert training for and entering World War I’s trench warfare. Joey’s fortunes are equally miserable as a cavalry horse. The narrative, heavily anthropomorphizing Joey throughout, tracks him as he and stablemate Topthorn are captured by the Germans. They pull an ambulance cart, spend a calmer summer on a farm, then endure grueling work pulling guns before garnering gentler treatment from German soldier Friedrich. Morpurgo’s sentimental treatment, matched by Disney-esque tableaux intermittently delivered in comics-style panels, nonetheless conveys war as barbaric and treacherous for all—human or animal. After a battle in which both Friedrich and Topthorn are killed, Joey races away, turning up on the wastes of the no man’s land between the warring armies. Albert and an English-speaking German soldier toss a coin for Joey, and Albert, the apparent winner, returns home with Joey at war’s end. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An engrossing look at a war that sacrificed both horses and people. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4052-9244-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Farshore/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests.
A lonely prince gains a friend for a quest to find a missing jewel.
Prince Lucas of Wrenly has everything a boy could possibly want—except a friend. His father has forbidden him to play with the village children for reasons of propriety. Adventure-seeking Lucas acquires peasant clothes to masquerade as a commoner and make friends, but he is caught out. His mother, the queen, persuades the king to allow him one friend: Clara, the daughter of her personal dressmaker. When the queen’s prized emerald pendant goes missing, Lucas and Clara set off to find it. They follow the jewel as it changes hands, interviewing each temporary owner. Their adventure cleverly introduces the series’ world and peoples, taking the children to the fairy island of Primlox, the trolls’ home of Burth, the wizard island of Hobsgrove and finally Mermaid’s Cove. By befriending the mermaids, Lucas and Clara finally recover the jewel. In thanks, the king gives Clara a horse of her own so that she may ride with Lucas on their future adventures. The third-person narration is generally unobtrusive, allowing the characters to take center stage. The charming, medieval-flavored illustrations set the fairy-tale scene and take up enough page space that new and reluctant readers won’t be overwhelmed by text.
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9691-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)
The town of Sunnyview got a little bit safer when 8-year-old Eugene McGillicudy moved in.
Just like his comic-book mentor, Super Dude, Eugene, aka Captain Awesome, is on a one-man mission is to save the world from supervillains, like the nefarious “Queen Stinkypants from Planet Baby.” Just as Eugene suspected, plenty of new supervillains await him at Sunnyview Elementary. Are Meredith Mooney and the mind-reading Ms. Beasley secretly working together to try and force Eugene to reveal his secret identity? Will Principal Brick Foot succeed in throwing Captain Awesome into the “Dungeon of Detention?” Fortunately, Eugene isn’t forced to go it alone. Charlie Thomas Jones, fellow comic-book lover and Super Dude fan, stands ready and willing to help. When the class hamster goes missing, Captain Awesome must don his cape and, with the help of his new best friend, ride to the rescue. Kirby’s funny and engaging third-person narration and O’Connor’s hilarious illustrations make the book easily accessible and enormously appealing, particularly to readers who have recently graduated to chapter books. But it is the quirky, mischievous Eugene that really makes this book special. His energy and humor are contagious, and his dogged commitment to his superhero alter ego is enough to make anyone a believer.
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4090-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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