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THE GIFT OF DRISCOLL LIPSCOMB

Name: THE GIFT OF DRISCOLL LIPSCOMB
Author: Sara Yamaka
ISBN: 0-02-793599-X

by Sara Yamaka & illustrated by Joung Un Kim ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1995

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A lyrical parable, told in a voice that is big on wonder and small on irony. The narrator has a painter friend, Driscoll Lipscomb, who gives her a pot of paint every year for her birthday: red when she turns four, orange when she turns five, and so on, until she owns all the colors of the rainbow. Every year she learns to paint objects of the given color, but while she learns to paint, she also learns to see, and the book ends with a scene of revelation in which she views all the colors of the rainbow in everything around her at once. The narrative, in which a sequence of colors overlaps with a sequence of ages, is nicely conceived; it amounts to an extended metaphor: coming of age as the unfolding of a rainbow. Painting and seeing is the subject of the illustrations that accompany the text, which depict the narrator and Driscoll Lipscomb in a variety of colorful settings. At the same time, the illustrations themselves are the subject of the text: Meditative acrylics, glowing and thin, full of unconcealed brush strokes, they might well have been the actual pictures the artists of the story- -one budding, the other experienced—created. A glorious lot to look at, in a book in which seeing is paramount. (Picture book. 4-8)*justify no*

Pub Date: May 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-02-793599-X

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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A DOG NAMED SAM

by Janice Boland & illustrated by G. Brian Karas ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1996

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A book that will make young dog-owners smile in recognition and confirm dogless readers' worst suspicions about the mayhem caused by pets, even winsome ones. Sam, who bears passing resemblance to an affable golden retriever, is praised for fetching the family newspaper, and goes on to fetch every other newspaper on the block. In the next story, only the children love Sam's swimming; he is yelled at by lifeguards and fishermen alike when he splashes through every watering hole he can find. Finally, there is woe to the entire family when Sam is bored and lonely for one long night. Boland has an essential message, captured in both both story and illustrations of this Easy-to-Read: Kids and dogs belong together, especially when it's a fun-loving canine like Sam. An appealing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-8037-1530-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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HOME

by Carson Ellis ; illustrated by Carson Ellis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 24, 2015

Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.

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Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”

Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.

Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)