``Once upon a ranch'' is how Lowell begins her enjoyable twist on the story of Little Red Riding Hood, starring a brave heroine who needs no lesson in self-reliance. First seen aiming a slingshot at a deadly snake, Little Red is instructed to take food to her sick grandmother. In the desert, she encounters the wolf, who is wearing a cowboy hat ``three shades blacker than a locomotive,'' and asks too many oily questions: ``What's your name, honey?'' and ``Where are you going, sugar? . . . Why not take a little ride with me?'' Little Red gives him the slip, only to rediscover him masquerading as her grandmother in the old woman's own bed. The wolf snatches her, but Grandma appears brandishing first an ax and then a shotgun to chase the villain off, complaining indignantly all the while: ``Breaking into my house! . . . Getting fleas in my bed!'' These two no-nonsense characters, with stick legs and huge cowboy boots, happily recap the victory while sitting on a fence munching sandwiches. There is humor in the pictures, with snakes among the cacti. The desert colors—mostly yellow, orange, and green—are painted in flat blocks of color in effective compositions that are deceptively simple while enhancing each scene's mood, whether pastoral or fearsome. A merry success, this Wild West fairy tale makes other versions look limp by comparison. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8050-3508-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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