Clever wordplay and a marvelous island bestiary distinguish this rhymed wonder quest from Lewis (Black Swan/White Crow, 1995, etc.). Mouse suggests to Honeypot Bear that they set sail for the magical Island of Oh, ``to hear the applause of the Red Lobster claws/For the beautiful La-di-da Hare.'' Honeypot Bear obliges by becoming their boat, Mouse navigates (``Honey! Bear right!'') and takes the honorary title of Commodore, and when they reach Oh, La-di-da Hare welcomes them lavishly: She decks them out in Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and cool designer shades, then rustles up some deli sandwiches for the whole island crowd. The Crocodile accepts a pastrami on rye, Oyster and Blue-clawed Crab tuck into deviled eggs and dill pickles, ``And who prefers a pat of peanut/Butter on a bun?/The Owls sat think-blinking that/Might do. `Yoo-whoo!' said one.'' La-di-da Hare convinces the two to remain forever, ``For animal crackers,/And wheels of bleu cheese- -/And a bungalow, boys,/For as long as you please!'' They are persuaded, and remain there to this day. It's a good subversive touch—let's have none of that home-in-time-for-tea stuff. Bluthenthal's animated illustrations are an excellent complement, in beachcombing colors of sand and surf, convincing in the depiction of a place awash in fresh, salt breezes. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-689-31925-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1997
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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As atmospheric as its companion, Twilight Comes Twice, this tone poem pairs poetically intense writing with luminescent oils featuring widely spaced houses, open lawns, and clumps of autumnal trees, all lit by a huge full moon. Fletcher tracks that moon’s nocturnal path in language rich in metaphor: “With silent slippers / it climbs the night stairs,” “staining earth and sky with a ghostly glow,” lighting up a child’s bedroom, the wings of a small plane, moonflowers, and, ranging further afield, harbor waves and the shells of turtle hatchlings on a beach. Using creamy brushwork and subtly muted colors, Kiesler depicts each landscape, each night creature from Luna moths to a sleepless child and her cat, as well as the great moon sweeping across star-flecked skies, from varied but never vertiginous angles. Closing with moonset, as dawn illuminates the world with a different kind of light, this makes peaceful reading either in season, or on any moonlit night. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-16451-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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A repressive teacher almost ruins second grade for a prodigy in this amusing, if overwritten, tale. Having shown a fascination with great buildings since constructing a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa from used diapers at age two, Iggy sinks into boredom after Miss Greer announces, throwing an armload of histories and craft projects into the trash, that architecture will be a taboo subject in her class. Happily, she changes her views when the collapse of a footbridge leaves the picnicking class stranded on an island, whereupon Iggy enlists his mates to build a suspension bridge from string, rulers and fruit roll-ups. Familiar buildings and other structures, made with unusual materials or, on the closing pages, drawn on graph paper, decorate Roberts’s faintly retro cartoon illustrations. They add an audience-broadening element of sophistication—as would Beaty’s decision to cast the text into verse, if it did not result in such lines as “After twelve long days / that passed in a haze / of reading, writing and arithmetic, / Miss Greer took the class / to Blue River Pass / for a hike and an old-fashioned picnic.” Another John Lithgow she is not, nor is Iggy another Remarkable Farkle McBride (2000), but it’s always salutary to see young talent vindicated. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-8109-1106-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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