A moving book about kindness, friendship, and hope in the context of conflict and displacement.
Following The Most Beautiful Village in the World (2018) and The Circus Comes to the Village (2019), Kobayashi offers the tale of a boy’s return to his homeland after it has been through war.
After leaving his small village in Afghanistan, young Mirado travels the world with the circus, playing the flute that his father gave him. He hears on the radio that the war, which his father joined and hasn’t returned from yet, has ended. Mirado sets his mind on going back to Paghman, his village. After saying goodbye to his circus colleagues, he embarks eastward on a long and rough trip. When neither train, bus, nor wagon can get him further, he walks. Throughout the book, readers see him in several urban and rural spaces, some of which may look familiar. Kobayashi’s landscapes will frequently take their breath away. Mirado journeys across mountains and forests, against the wind and in the cold. Kind strangers help him along the way, including other refugees attempting to return home. He will find his Paghman in ruins but will also meet his best friend, Yamo, and together, they will imagine and plan for a brighter future. This suspenseful and beautifully illustrated story, originally published in Japan in 2003, covers a topic unfrequented in children’s literature about refugees and one that’s often romanticized in real life: that of the return.
A moving book about kindness, friendship, and hope in the context of conflict and displacement. (Picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-940842-45-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Museyon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Warp back in time for a prehistoric spinoff adventure with Geronimo Stilton’s ancestor, Geronimo Stiltonoot, in Old Mouse City.
Readers will find Geronimo Stiltonoot a familiar character, outfitted differently from descendant Stilton yet still running a newspaper and having wild adventures. In this introduction to prehistoric mouse life, someone has stolen the most powerful and important artifact housed by the Old Mouse City Mouseum: the Stone of Fire. It’s up to Stiltonoot and his fellow sleuth and friend, Hercule Poirat, to uncover not only the theft, but a dangerous plot that jeopardizes all of Old Mouse City. As stand-ins for the rest of the Stilton cast, Stiltonoot has in common with Stilton a cousin named Trap, a sister named Thea and a nephew named Benjamin. The slapstick comedy and design, busy with type changes and color, will be familiar for Stilton readers. The world is fictionalized for comedic effect, featuring funny uses for dinosaurs and cheeky references to how far back in time they are, with only the occasional sidebar that presents facts. The story takes a bit long to get started, spending a lot of time reiterating the worldbuilding information laid out before the first chapter. But once it does start, it is an adventure Stilton readers will enjoy. Geronimo Stiltonoot has the right combination of familiarity and newness to satisfy Stilton fans. (Fiction. 6-10)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-44774-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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