A medley of aspirational sentiments and newly fashioned illustrations—both inspired by those of the classic tale.
The result is as ill wrought as it is ill conceived. Hart boils down the various versions of the original story’s major themes to a series of pithy formulations. These range from the mundane, “A positive attitude always helps when the going gets tough,” to such excruciatingly trite lines as “Remember that it’s always darkest before the dawn,” and “There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel!” He then fills in the page count with assorted tangential apothegms: “Always run on time”; “Everyone needs a little downtime for maintenance” (followed later on by “It’s okay to take a break”); “Don’t forget that everyone travels on their own track.” Evidently not having seen the final text, Howarth follows up this last with a contradictory view on the next page of two engines on the same track (“Go at your own pace!”). An earlier sequence involving a fallen tree finds it placed in three different places in as many illustrations. In general she sticks to traditional portrayals of the anthropomorphic locomotives and the toys in her diminutive scenes but gives one of the two toy dolls brown skin.
Strong evidence that sometimes you really do just think you can. (Picture book. 6-8, adult)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-8468-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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In 1918, José de la Luz Sáenz left his teaching job and enlisted in the United States Army, where he joined thousands of other Mexican American soldiers.
“He wanted to demonstrate that Mexican Americans loved America and would give their lives fighting for it,” writes Tonatiuh. Luz felt that the white people of Texas would start treating Tejanos (Texans of Mexican descent) fairly after seeing their sacrifice. Once in France, Luz taught himself French and was assigned to the intelligence office to translate communications, but he was not given credit or promotions for this vital work. After the war, he and other Tejano veterans found prejudice against them unchanged. They organized and became civil rights leaders. In 1929, 10 years after the end of World War I, they formed the League of United Latin American Citizens. Together they fought against school segregation, racism, prejudice, and “for the ideals of democracy and justice.” The author’s insightful use of Sáenz’s war-diary entries boldly introduces this extraordinary American’s triumphs and struggles. In Tonatiuh’s now-trademark illustrations, Luz crouches with other stylized doughboys in French trenches as shells explode in no man’s land and mourns a fallen fellow Mexican in a French cemetery. Extensive backmatter includes an author’s note, war timeline, timeline of LULAC’s successful civil rights lawsuits, glossary, and bibliography.
An important contribution to this volatile chapter in U.S. and Mexican American history . (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3682-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A discussion starter offering contrasting answers to the titular question.
Children are likely to find their thinking more muddled than clarified by this set of scenarios, as—whether due to poor phrasing in the original French or awkward translation—the alternatives are often inscrutable or nonsensical. The confusion begins with the title, which is transformed to “What Makes Us Happy?” on an inside gatefold. Either way, the question is addressed in a series of broadly brushed scenes featuring an array of familiar animals with human expressions acting in anti-social ways on the left and, beneath further gatefolds on the right, more cooperatively. Thus, to use one of the less-obscure examples, the alternatives “Keeping everything for yourself? // Or sharing what you have?” caption views of a duckling depicted first clutching a basket full of lollipops, then handing them out. At other times, though, readers are invited to decide between “Being better than others // Or doing well with others”; “Being protected from all dangers // Or daring to jump and have fun”; “Using something until there is no more” (a monkey gulping down a pile of bananas), or (said monkey training a garden hose on a few banana plants) “taking care of things so we can keep enjoying it” (sic).
More problematic than problem-solving. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62795-121-0
Page Count: 60
Publisher: Shelter Harbor Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Categories: PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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