Awe-inspiring, exquisitely rendered, indeed “unforgettable.” (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-9)
In 1914, a 4-year-old boy living in Gowganda, Ontario, witnesses a forest fire that forces people and animals into a nearby lake to survive.
Bond recounts this true story of her grandfather Antonio, who grew up in a rural, lakeshore hotel his mother operated. Antonio spends his time helping hotel staff, peeking into guests’ rooms, hanging out with lumberjacks, trappers, and silver miners, and exploring the dense forest looking for animals. One dry summer day, a forest fire quickly spreads toward the hotel. To escape, everyone rushes into the lake, soon followed by rabbits, foxes, bobcats, raccoons, wolves, deer, moose, porcupines, elk, squirrels, possums, and bears fleeing from the woods. To Antonio’s amazement, people and animals “stood close enough to touch.” Eventually, the fire dies down, the people return to the still-standing hotel, and the animals depart. Delicate watercolor-and–pen-and-ink illustrations bring palpable realism to this vivid imagined memory. Pale sepia, gray, and green washes combine with fine-lined figures to evoke the nostalgic feel of old etchings. Scenes of boisterous boarders in the dining room contrast with images of the same shocked men knee-deep in the lake watching the flaming red sky. Sensitively drawn animals, tentatively and nervously waiting together in shared peril with humans, speak volumes.
Awe-inspiring, exquisitely rendered, indeed “unforgettable.” (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-38077-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will agree that “Melba Doretta Liston was something special.” (Picture book. 4-8)
Bewitched by the rhythms of jazz all around her in Depression-era Kansas City, little Melba Doretta Liston longs to make music in this fictional account of a little-known jazz great.
Picking up the trombone at 7, the little girl teaches herself to play with the support of her Grandpa John and Momma Lucille, performing on the radio at 8 and touring as a pro at just 17. Both text and illustrations make it clear that it’s not all easy for Melba; “The Best Service for WHITES ONLY” reads a sign in a hotel window as the narrative describes a bigotry-plagued tour in the South with Billie Holiday. But joy carries the day, and the story ends on a high note, with Melba “dazzling audiences and making headlines” around the world. Russell-Brown’s debut text has an innate musicality, mixing judicious use of onomatopoeia with often sonorous prose. Morrison’s sinuous, exaggerated lines are the perfect match for Melba’s story; she puts her entire body into her playing, the exaggerated arch of her back and thrust of her shoulders mirroring the curves of her instrument. In one thrilling spread, the evening gown–clad instrumentalist stands over the male musicians, her slide crossing the gutter while the back bow disappears off the page to the left. An impressive discography complements a two-page afterword and a thorough bibliography.
Readers will agree that “Melba Doretta Liston was something special.” (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60060-898-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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