Beautiful and reverent but perhaps not particularly relevant.
As the subtitle indicates, young bookworms are invited to “Explore the Amazing Collection of the British Library.”
“Explore” is the key word here, as the table of contents lists 21 potential discoveries among the library’s holdings. In its tour, the text capitalizes on the human-interest aspects of the collection, such as the facts that Shakespeare’s First Folio is kept in a bombproof, underground room and that the oldest surviving book produced in Europe, St. Cuthbert’s Gospel, was found in a coffin. Other monuments to the (mostly) English masterworks surveyed include Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species, Handel’s handwritten sheet music, and the original manuscript of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Questions to readers provide segues from one entry to the next; “Are you hungry after all that drama?” leads them from Shakespeare to the section on cookbooks. The watercolor-and-digital illustrations lend a fanciful, hodgepodge effect to the collection of literary tidbits. Varying typefaces play to the topics, as with the use of a Gothic type for The Canterbury Tales and a delicate scriptlike type for Jane Austen. The book effectively demonstrates the role of the British Library as custodian to a broad swath of British literary history. The question here is, who is the audience on this side of the Atlantic, particularly at a time when concerted efforts are being made to create a more diverse and inclusive canon? The Inside-Outside Book of Libraries, by Julie Cummins and illustrated by Roxie Munro (1996), is a little old but still provides a better introduction to the concept of libraries.
Beautiful and reverent but perhaps not particularly relevant. (thumbnail bios, glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9757-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.
One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Starting with a lonely slice of pizza pictured on the cover and the first page, Thornhill launches into a wide-ranging study of the history and culture of food—where it comes from, how to eat it and what our food industries are doing to the planet. It’s a lot to hang on that slice of pizza, but there are plenty of interesting tidbits here, from Clarence Birdseye’s experiments with frozen food to how mad cow disease causes the brain to turn spongy to industrial food production and global warming. Unfortunately, the volume is designed like a bad high-school yearbook. Most pages are laid out in text boxes, each containing a paragraph on a discrete topic, but with little in the way of an organizing theme to tie together the content of the page or spread. Too many colors, too much jumbled-together information and total reliance on snippets of information make this a book for young readers more interested in browsing than reading. Kids at the upper edge of the book's range would be better served by Richie Chevat's adaptation of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2009). (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897349-96-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Maple Tree Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
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