As a boy, Franklin Roosevelt spent summers at the family “cottage” on Campobello Island, nestled in the waters off Maine and New Brunswick. There he made the acquaintance of Tomah Joseph, a former chief of the Passamaquoddy tribe who made his living in later life as a guide. Vignettes imagine Tomah Joseph teaching the future president how to paddle a canoe, showing him how to gather sweetgrass for a basket, telling him stories and, when Roosevelt was a young man, giving him a birchbark canoe (which now rests on display at the Roosevelt Campobello International Park museum and inspired this book). Passamaquoddy historian Soctomah and co-author Flahive present a text-heavy series of incidents rather than an actual story, emphasizing the imagined relationship but providing little narrative oomph. The result is a pleasant interlude with little for young readers to hold onto for later. Owens’s soft watercolors depict the scenes with warmth but do not provide any real visual dynamism. Without question well-meaning and potentially useful in Native American curricula but hard to work with in isolation. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-88448-300-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2009
Sloat collaborates with Huffman, a Yu’pik storyteller, to infuse a traditional “origins” tale with the joy of creating. Hearing the old women of her village grumble that they have only tasteless crowberries for the fall feast’s akutaq—described as “Eskimo ice cream,” though the recipe at the end includes mixing in shredded fish and lard—young Anana carefully fashions three dolls, then sings and dances them to life. Away they bound, to cover the hills with cranberries, blueberries, and salmonberries. Sloat dresses her smiling figures in mixes of furs and brightly patterned garb, and sends them tumbling exuberantly through grassy tundra scenes as wildlife large and small gathers to look on. Despite obtrusively inserted pronunciations for Yu’pik words in the text, young readers will be captivated by the action, and by Anana’s infectious delight. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-88240-575-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
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