The companion to the credibility-straining Nine for California (1996), this is a deeply satisfying story starring a resourceful heroine whose real-life counterpart is mentioned in a tiny historical footnote. Amanda and her family settle in a cabin while her father trudges off each week to prospect for gold. Even with a tumble of siblings, though, Amanda is bored until she figures out a way to do what she loves best: bake a pie. When Pa comes home and says he made 25 cents a slice from her gooseberry pie, Amanda begins to bake in earnest. But that's not all she does. She convinces a peddler to set up a trading post, encourages a prospector to open a laundry, and a cowboy to set up a livery stable. The town grows, enough for Pa to go into business with his daughter and for Amanda to think about schooling as well as pie. Smith's detailed watercolors are full of charm: Amanda's red ribbons match her gingham dress, a baby sister sleeps on a ferocious- looking bearskin rug in the cabin, and expressive, cartoony characters festoon the western landscape. It's fun to watch the town grow, spread by spread, and a map and a recipe for gooseberry pie grace the endpapers. Levitin and Smith provide a grand look at the hows and whys behind a town's growth; of course it didn't happen exactly this way—but it might have. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-531-30043-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
An inspiring story of young boy's compelling desire to read. As a boy of nine, Booker works in a salt mine from the dark of early morning to the gloom of night, hungry for a meal, but even hungrier to learn to read. Readers follow him on his quest in Malden, Virginia, where he finds inspiration in a man ``brown as me'' reading a newspaper on a street corner. An alphabet book helps, but Booker can't make the connection to words. Seeking out ``that brown face of hope'' once again, Booker gains a sense of the sounds represented by letters, and these become his deliverance. Bradby's fine first book is tautly written, with a poetic, spiritual quality in every line. The beautifully executed, luminous illustrations capture the atmosphere of an African-American community post-slavery: the drudgery of days consumed by back- breaking labor, the texture of private lives conducted by lantern- light. There is no other context or historical note about Booker T. Washington's life, leaving readers to piece together his identity. Regardless, this is an immensely satisfying, accomplished work, resonating first with longing and then with joy. (Picture book. 5- 8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-09464-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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