This French import incorporates classic jazz tunes from the 1920s through ’50s with the determined aspirations of an angel-voiced Brazilian cricket. Zaz stows away to New York in a lady’s fancy hat, encountering poverty and stormy weather once there. A blue fly named Buster shows her the secret entrance (via a downward tunnel in the 26th lamppost on East 54th Street) to the Swing Café. Norac’s metaphor-strewn narrative creates interludes for specific musical compositions (heard along with the text on the accompanying CD). For example, Vess L. Ossman’s banjo tune “A Bunch of Rags” cues up when Zaz gets stuck in some banjo strings during her fall down to the café. Dautremer’s sophisticated illustrations combine surreal elements (wheeled boats and fire hydrants, for example), archival jazz posters and insects depicted as people, with merest species suggestions. Ellington dominates (no quibble there), but Fats, Cab and Ella get nods, too. The CD is narrated by David Frances and Brazilian-American singer Bebel Gilberto. The text’s a bit long on gratuitous adventure, but the package is unusual and fresh. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-2-923163-62-8
Page Count: 54
Publisher: The Secret Mountain
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
It’s a slam dunk
Lucy discovers that the way to learn to play basketball is with friends on a neighborhood court.
Lucy loves playing in the park, and one day she and her friends join their friend Ava and her cousin in their new favorite sport: basketball. Pro player Jermaine, aka “Coach J,” teaches all the basics—footwork, quick passes, dribbling, and a variety of shots. But he also encourages the players to keep trying when they miss, stresses the value of teamwork, and focuses on fun as they learn and later play a practice game. At the end of the workout, Coach J invites the young players to watch him and his team play. Written in loose rhyming couplets, the text has many near rhymes and inconsistent meter. While the storyline is predictable, the book is a good introduction to basketball terms, and young basketball players and fans will appreciate reading about themselves. Vivid silhouetted figures against a white background portray male and female players of several races; Lucy herself is white while Ava and Coach J are black. One young player competes from a wheelchair. A half page of backmatter explains the history of basketball, the NBA and its players, and wheelchair basketball, and one entry also explains the three-on-three basketball that the children play. The book publishes in a simultaneous French edition translated by Rachel Martinez.
It’s a slam dunk . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1697-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
An early reader that kids will want to befriend.
In an odd-couple pairing of Bear and Chipmunk, only one friend is truly happy to spend the day at the beach.
“Not me!” is poor Chipmunk’s lament each time Bear expresses the pleasure he takes in sunning, swimming, and other activities at the beach. While controlled, repetitive text makes the story accessible to new readers, slapstick humor characterizes the busy watercolor-and-ink illustrations and adds interest. Poor Chipmunk is pinched by a crab, buried in sand, and swept upside down into the water, to name just a few mishaps. Although other animal beachgoers seem to notice Chipmunk’s distress, Bear cheerily goes about his day and seems blithely ignorant of his friend’s misfortunes. The playful tone of the illustrations helps soften the dynamic so that it doesn’t seem as though Chipmunk is in grave danger or that Bear is cruel. As they leave at the end of the book Bear finally asks, “Why did you come?” and Chipmunk’s sweet response caps off the day with a warm sunset in the background.
An early reader that kids will want to befriend. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3546-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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