A cleverly imagined story with a delightful premise but uneven plot.
Once upon a time there lived a rajah who, despite his good nature, lacked the mathematical ability to properly govern his kingdom….
As a result, his people suffer. One such is Bhagat, a nimble-thinking and hardworking but impoverished young man who lives with his mother in a distant village. Bhagat is a passionate singer, so when he hears that the king is holding auditions for the royal troupe, he travels to the palace to audition. Due to his family’s poverty, Bhagat is able to carry only 1 rupee and seven links from his mother’s wedding chain. When he arrives at his destination, the innkeepers demand a ring in advance for every night that Bhagat stays, but the goldsmith charges 1 rupee per link to break it. How can Bhagat make the necklace last without wasting a single link? With some clever reasoning and base two math, Bhagat makes his resources stretch long enough to get an audience with the rajah—and a new, unexpected opportunity. This heartwarming rags-to-riches story is accompanied by vivid illustrations that pulse with detail, movement, and color. However, the middle of the story consists mostly of expository text detailing different ways to divide the set of seven rings into multiple parts, an abstract diversion that brings the plot to a grinding halt. An author’s note discusses base 10 and binary systems. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 36.1% of actual size.)
A cleverly imagined story with a delightful premise but uneven plot. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-88500-897-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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