Warmth and world peace, one stitch at a time, but there are a lot of stitches to go before readers get there
The yarn gets knotty and tangled up in this tale of knitted happiness.
The village of River John in far northeastern Canada is filled with joy at the birth of a baby lamb. It brings visitors to the town, namely Count Woolliam and the Countess of Fleece and Fluff, siblings from Woolland. They want the lamb for their obsession with wool, which they use for everything from mittens to toilet paper. But they crave the warmth only for themselves, not their cold subjects. Another visitor to River John is the titular Polly, a recluse whose sweetheart died in a long-ago war and who crafts in every way possible using yarn. She has a very special project in mind, and only the wool from the lamb, named Star, can be used. The Count and Countess are convinced to leave Star with the villagers so that Polly and the local women can use its wool. The message is delivered via a homophone: there is love and wool enough for the whole world so share this “yarn” of a tale. The writing is overlong, overwrought, and overfull of alliteration and wordplay. Fitch adopts a storyteller’s voice, which could have carried it, but at its substantial length, the tale makes for a read-aloud challenge. A ribbon of blue and green winds through the pages, evoking the river, the fields, the knitting, and the whole wide world enveloped in wooly love.
Warmth and world peace, one stitch at a time, but there are a lot of stitches to go before readers get there . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-927917-10-7
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Running the Goat
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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