At the behest of the illustrator of Gerald Durrell's books on animals, Sutcliff created this curious fable involving a real set of 12th-century Scandinavian chessmen (found on the Scottish Isle of Lewis) in a tale in which the Arthurian legend is summoned to serve an environmental message. In a beautiful garden (Eden/Camelot/Through the Looking-Glass?), the White King and Queen and their retinue each have an animal companion by day and another of which they dream—the Queen dreams of a unicorn, and sometimes that she is the unicorn, while her knight dreams of a zebra-striped horse, and of the Queen's unicorn, too. Even the pawns (carved simply as tombstones!) dream of being armadillos. The Knight woos the Queen, who refuses him; still, trouble has entered Paradise, now stormed by the Red Horde, and there's an allusion-filled battle on the chessboard, the beasts taking part. It's an intriguing intellectual exercise, but there are simply too many ideas here to find synthesis in such a brief story. Still, Sutcliff's admirers will be fascinated by the recapitulation of her themes; her prose is, as always, elegantly phrased; Thompson's lovely garden and expressive figures are limned with skillful, energetic strokes; and the story, though overintricate and confusing, is packed with action. A handsome book with so much going on that, paradoxically, it has something for everyone. (Picture book. 5+)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 1-56402-192-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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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