A tepid story about stories from a noted reteller of traditional tales. A bookish prince, upon being told of his betrothal, declares he will not marry the princess chosen for him unless someone tells him a story whose ending he does not know. Meanwhile, a spunky princess across the ocean, upon being told of her betrothal, declares that she would “rather be washed overboard in a storm at sea” than marry a prince she has not chosen for herself. Predictably enough, the princess is duly washed overboard, makes her way to the bookish prince’s palace, tells him her story, and they fall in love, only to discover that each was the other’s intended all along. There are a few high points: when the disguised princess tells—in the third person—of her miraculous survival clinging to a conveniently washed-over trunk, a skeptical prince declares, “You really expect me—a grown-up, intelligent, well-educated human being—to believe that . . . You should do more research!” Otherwise, however, Martin’s (The Language of Birds, 2000) text seems to aim for a conspiratorial relationship with the reader but more often achieves only a certain self-referential smugness. Root (The Peddler’s Gift, 1999) works to dramatize a story in which much of the action consists of characters sitting in a room and talking to each other. She stuffs each scene with books and cats and patterns and intriguing stylistic details, the action taking place in a center panel that appears to be laid on top of a larger framework. But while her warm pencil-and-watercolor illustrations do their best, they are ultimately unable to invest the characters with enough personality to lift the story. An inside joke between book and reader that just isn’t funny enough. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-22924-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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