Billed a Yoruba myth by the publisher and presented in parallel English and Spanish renditions, this tale from a Cuban storyteller and priestess of the Santería religion explains the origin of comets and the stars. Made from a cloud, the first creature fashioned by God is playful Oloyou the Cat. Having fallen into the “depths of Nothing,” Oloyou meets and falls in love with fish-tailed Kandili, daughter of gruff Okún Aró, the infinite sea. So great is Okún Aró’s displeasure with the romance that he tosses both into the “infinite heights,” where Kandili’s sparkling dark hair spreads to fill the firmament and Oloyou becomes the comet that “leaps through the night sky.” Applying paint thinly to let the texture of the canvas come through, Sada fashions shadowy, stylized scenes featuring a fuzzy white cat, a dark-skinned mermaid and a sea god who is a blue-skinned giant on some pages and an eerie red mask on others. Cárdenas supplies no source note, but her simple, good-humored tale will appeal to young readers and listeners. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-88899-795-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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