by Vivian Vande Velde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995
``Once upon a time, in the days before Social Security or insurance companies, there lived a miller and his daughter, Della, who were fairly well-off and reasonably happy until the day their mill burned down.'' So begins a set of the most imaginatively twisted tales since Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith hit the scene. The spin that Vande Velde (Dragon's Bait, 1992, etc.) surehandedly puts on familiar stories sends them tumbling in logical directions: Della decides that gentle Rumplestiltskin will be a better father than the greedy king; having seen what the princess is like, Prince Sidney is outta there as soon as he's no longer a frog; the oldest Billy Goat Gruff butts his brothers into the drink for not warning him about the troll; and a princess who can't sleep because of a pea is entirely too fussy for Prince Royal. Jack of the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood suffer hilarious, deserved misadventures; Hansel and Gretel are a pair of young killers; and Beauty almost turns Beast down when she sees him in human form. The author's creative juices are far from exhausted by these, so she intersperses even more plot ideas, in the form of shorter ads, poems, etc., throughout. Terrific fun: lighter of heart than Galloway's Truly Grim Tales (p. 856), and comparable in quality to William Brooke's classic sendups (A Telling of the Tales, 1990, etc.). (Folklore. 9- 13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-15-200220-0
Page Count: 129
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
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by Vivian Vande Velde ; illustrated by Steve Bjorkman
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by Julia Alvarez ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay.
Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.
When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words; she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is "mutual understanding." Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the "language" lessons as the characters. This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Like all good stories, this one incorporates a lesson just subtle enough that readers will forget they're being taught, but in the end will understand themselves, and others, a little better, regardless of la lengua nativa—the mother tongue.
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80215-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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by Julia Alvarez ; illustrated by Raúl Colón
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by Julia Alvarez ; illustrated by Sabra Field
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by Richard Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2000
Year-round fun.
Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.”
This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot; it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. The first-person narration is infused with rich, colorful language—“She was skinnier than a toothpick with termites”—and Mary Alice’s shrewd, prickly observations: “Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”
Year-round fun. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 978-0-8037-2518-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
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by Richard Peck ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy
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