A frenzy of feeling, pen strokes, and verse that seeks to excite and empower young people just awakening from childhood...
A poem's gentle admonishments nudge readers to open themselves up to the world.
A bunny hops atop its burrow, its parents working cozily inside, and looks up. Omniscient narration blows in, whispering, "Before you forget… // ...look up. / The sky has always been above you, / is above you now, / and will always be above you." Children will intuitively understand the reassuring embrace of the enveloping dome overhead. As the verse glides raspily along, younger readers will lose their grips on its meaning: "Pretend you are someone, / and pretend you are no one. / Pretend you are who you long to be, / who you would never want to be, / and who you can only imagine being. / Know that you will be parts of all of these." Pre-adolescent readers, however, just grappling with slippery questions about their identities, their life choices, and the ways they engage with the world around them, will feel stimulated by this meditative book's recommendations as well as its jubilant ink-and-watercolor illustrations. Indeed, the bunny rambling and reflecting in Cordell’s pictures resembles a preteen happily hopping down its own path, seeing a glorious world that echoes with energy: streams of music, gusts of butterflies, smatterings of stars, and rolling fields of grass.
A frenzy of feeling, pen strokes, and verse that seeks to excite and empower young people just awakening from childhood slumber. (Picture book. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59078-926-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
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