A fanciful tale that’s likely to delight young readers.
Kanter and St. Amour’s picture book presents a modern-day fable of money and greed.
Armando and his wife, Elisa, have four children and live a comfortable life on the estate of wealthy Giuliano Cantore. Elisa is “endowed with fanciful ideas—but also a pragmatist.” Armando, meanwhile, “wished to buy Giuliano’s estate someday,” and keeps his life savings of gold coins in a small wine barrel. Early on, the narrator introduces readers to “Puttifurbi”—beings who mysteriously and mischievously move people’s possessions around. One day, Armando awakens to happily discover that “eleven gold coins tumbled from his tousled hair and onto the wood-planked floor.” This apparent “gift from the angels” continues nightly, but Elisa believes it’s a Puttifurbi prank. The authors weave a rich, traditional fable, frequently addressing “Dear reader” and offering reminders about “olden times.” Textual imagery will help young readers see the story in their mind’s eye: “the cold winter sun hung low like a pink jewel on the horizon.” It’s a clever tale with lessons about envy and avarice mingled with humor, with an ending that includes a major real-life historical figure. Secondary characters, such as Elise’s grandmother, Lucia, and Armando’s brother, Marco, are also entertaining. Philtjens’ illustrations complement the text well with their whimsical style and rich, warm colors.
A fanciful tale that’s likely to delight young readers.Pub Date: May 14, 2023
ISBN: 9798986446141
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pactum Factum Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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