A humorous but flawed parody best suited for young adults and adults rather than the picture-book audience.
A young white woman named Cyndi Lou is presented with unusual (and sometimes-unwelcome) gifts for the 12 days of Christmas by her suitor, Billy Ray.
Cyndi Lou looks like a young Carrie Underwood, with a poufy ponytail, denim shorts, and cowgirl boots. She lives with her grandmother, Memaw, in a double-wide trailer in a country setting somewhere in the South. Billy Ray’s gifts are shown on left-hand pages, with chatty, amusing thank-you letters to Billy Ray from Cyndi Lou on the right-hand pages. While the letters are humorous, the illustrations are rather unsophisticated in composition and technique. Cyndi Lou likes her first few gifts, including “a possum in a sweet-gum tree,” two armadillos, and five razorback hogs. Things go downhill with subsequent gifts, including six gun-toting, smelly deer hunters (all men), eight Walmart shoppers (all women), and 10 NASCAR drivers (only one, a man, is pictured). By the conclusion, Cyndi Lou has married one of the NASCAR drivers, Memaw and friends are armed with 12 gifted muzzleloaders looking for Billy Ray, and the sheriff’s deputies (from problematically named Coon County) are looking for Memaw, “considered dangerous.” The main characters are all white; some of the hunters, shoppers, and other secondary characters are black or brown.
A humorous but flawed parody best suited for young adults and adults rather than the picture-book audience. (author’s note) (Picture book. 11-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4556-2298-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Marc Chagall is a difficult subject for a biography, especially one for children. His art is also dense with meaning and texture. The authors have attempted to combine biographical information with interpretation of some of his major paintings and have achieved only partial success. Stressing the relationship between the events in his life and the subjects he chose to paint, they describe and explain the paintings in that context. The biographical material is mixed with both descriptions of the paintings and side notes on style, and all of this is presented in a variety of type sizes, arrangements, and colors. Family photographs are also included in the mix. The results are visually exciting, but confusing, creating a sense of being overwhelmed by the material. This is an interesting but not quite satisfying addition to the Adventures in Art series and is also less suitable for the younger readers for whom it is intended. (Biography. 12+)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 3-7913-2393-8
Page Count: 30
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
Ghanaian teenager Gloria Bampo has hit a rough patch. She failed most of her school exams, her long-unemployed father has lost himself to religion and her mother is ravaged by a mysterious sickness. Her one consolation, her older sister Effie, has discovered boys and all but disappeared. Gloria is offered a job in a distant city with Christine, a doctor who needs househelp. Her father is quick to assent, with one condition: In lieu of payment, Christine must take responsibility for Gloria's future and adopt her as a sister. Gloria adjusts easily, studies hard and explores her newfound freedom. But when the temptations of her new life—brand-name clothes and handsome doctors—prove hard to resist, a misunderstanding cuts a rift between Gloria and Christine. Each must confront class stereotypes and re-examine the meaning of family. Badoe's sharp and engaging prose unfolds the story with spryness, deftly navigating readers through heady social issues. But she wastes readers' goodwill at the end with a conclusion both haphazard and overly moralistic, jarringly out of place in this otherwise thoughtful and well-excuted novel. (Ghanaian glossary) (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-88899-996-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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