Kindness and compassion delivered in a pat manner.
A fearsome yeti is befriended by a gentle lama in this picture book.
In Tibet, a lama spends his days in meditation “wishing peace and happiness for the world and all its creatures.” One day, going into the village for the midsummer festival, he finds it empty. He learns that a yeti has terrorized the village and the villagers are afraid to come outdoors. The lama persuades them to celebrate anyway. Afterward, back at his cave, the lama is praying for “peace and happiness” when the yeti shows up, ready to pounce. But this brief moment of narratively welcome tension is immediately diffused when the yeti, instead, lies down at the lama’s feet, pacified by the “warm glow of the lama’s heart.” This turn of events may well disorient young readers. Hopefully they will identify with the lama’s subsequent kindness and compassion to the yeti and the yeti’s conversion into a happy, helpful companion, but this well-worn (although vital) theme fails to captivate in this treatment. Mineker’s illustrations are colorful, showing many Tibetan faces and a brown yeti, but beyond this are unremarkable in their design and perspectives. While author Das is a well-regarded, well-known Western monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the book’s cutesy language, somewhat patronizing jocularity, and lack of narrative tension make it a bland read.
Kindness and compassion delivered in a pat manner. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68364-386-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sounds True
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
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)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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