A vividly written work of juvenile fiction that mixes fantasy and suspense with messages of empowerment, history, art, and...
In this adventure for middle-grade readers, a young girl regains her self-confidence and discovers the power of knowledge when she travels back in time to visit great artists of the past.
Sixth-grader Lucy Nightingale blanks out in class one day and finds that she’s lost the “confident part of herself, the Lucy who loved school, the Lucy who could give wonderful oral reports and got A’s.” The following morning, a strange new teacher named Arabella Lang asks Lucy to write a report on what Botticelli’s “Primavera,” Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, Pontormo’s “Four Women,” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” say about the artists themselves. Lucy calls upon the Wise Ones, “magic beings who listen for children’s wishes,” for help. A response comes in the form of a bespectacled, endearing, talking corgi dog named Wilbur, who serves as her guide for a time-traveling journey involving crystals, synchronized “wavelengths,” and a gadget called the Navigator. First up is Botticelli’s studio; there, Lucy says of one work, “It’s a wonderful painting. I’m sure lots of people will want to buy it.” (In an apparent oversight, she repeats this phrase four pages later, referring to another painting.) Later, she and Wilbur view “grumpy” Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling in progress, and they visit Leonardo’s studio, which is filled with his inventions. The reclusive Pontormo’s “Four Women” makes Lucy catch her breath: “You see bigness and bright color in the world,” she tells him. She also encounters Van Gogh in his St. Remy asylum; Lodge portrays him with affecting sensitivity. Throughout this entertaining, fantastical debut, the author brings the artists and their paintings to life with resonant, informed vignettes. Each funny or soulful encounter gives Lucy opportunities to realize that she’s also an original, smart thinker. Lodge also shows Lucy taking on challenges, such as when the Navigator and Wilbur succumb to a virus; as a result, the faulty instrument lands the travelers in the path of Hannibal and his war elephants and takes them to an Egyptian pyramid and inside Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” where “Vincent’s crashing sky rose up like a sea monster.” In the end, Lucy is ready for class, thanks to all the insights she’s gained from her adventures.
A vividly written work of juvenile fiction that mixes fantasy and suspense with messages of empowerment, history, art, and science.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0996088534
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Wilwahren Press
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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