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WALLACE HOSKINS

Name: WALLACE HOSKINS
Author: Cynthia Zarin
ISBN: 0-7894-2523-8

THE BOY WHO GREW DOWN

by Cynthia Zarin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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This is the curious story of Wallace Hoskins, who is small for his age and never seen without his large red fireman’s hat. His mother frets that he is too small, and she frets that he won’t take off the hat. Wallace, too, is concerned—he worries that his mother worries. Then one day Wallace starts putting on some inches, which makes everyone happy until it is discovered that only Wallace’s legs are growing and the rest of him remains the same. Mrs. Hoskins dashes off to Nanny Heppleweather, an old soul who had once offered assistance. Her advice is to take the fireman’s hat off, cut the toadstool she will find growing on Wallace’s head into ten pieces, and throw them into the sea. This is more than just a cautionary tale of what happens to those who don’t wash their hair; it’s a pleasing little introduction to absurdism. Some of Zarin’s witticisms may well fly right over the heads of younger listeners—“He felt that his destiny had been taken out of his hands. It was an odd feeling, but he was a child and it was not entirely new to him”—but they are deeply amusing and Matje’s sophisticated cartoons will keep children smiling. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-7894-2523-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: DK Publishing

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
ALBERT, THE DOG WHO LIKED TO RIDE IN TAXIS
by Cynthia Zarin & illustrated by Pierre Pratt

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU SHUT YOUR EYES?
by Cynthia Zarin & illustrated by Sarah Durham

- BOOK REVIEW
ROSE AND SEBASTIAN
by Cynthia Zarin & illustrated by Sarah Durham

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KEVIN AND HIS DAD

by Irene Smalls ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-316-79899-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
MY POP POP AND ME
by Irene Smalls & illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson

- BOOK REVIEW
MY NANA AND ME
by Irene Smalls & illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson

- BOOK REVIEW
DON’T SAY AIN’T
by Irene Smalls & illustrated by Colin Bootman

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DEAR JUNO

by Soyung Pak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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Picture-book debuts for both author and illustrator result in an affectionate glimpse of intergenerational bonds. Juno loves to get letters in the red-and-blue bordered airmail envelopes that come from his grandmother, who lives in Korea, near Seoul. He cannot read Korean, but he opens the letter anyway, and learns what he can from what his grandmother has sent: a photograph of herself and her new cat, and a dried flower from her garden. When his parents read him the letter, he realizes how much he learned from the other things his grandmother mailed to him. He creates some drawings of himself, his parents, house, and dog, and sends them along with a big leaf from his swinging tree. He gets back a package that includes drawing pencils and a small airplane—the grandmother is coming to visit. The messages that can be conveyed without words, language differences between generations, and family ties across great distances are gently and affectingly handled in this first picture book. The illustrations, done in oil-paint glazes, are beautifully lit; the characters, particularly Grandmother, with her bowl of persimmons, her leafy garden, and her grey bun that looks “like a powdered doughnut,” are charming. (Picture book. 3-7)