Combining several elements of Russian folklore, the authors create an engaging tale using old motifs in new ways. A king spares an eagle he was going to shoot; the eagle speaks and promises to be useful, offering the king two boxes that he’s not to open just yet. He does, of course, and when the enclosed livestock run amok, the sea king, Morskoi Tsar, gathers them back, making the king promise to give him “that which you do not know is in your house.” The king returns home to find he’s promised his baby son, born while he was away. When the prince is claimed, he has a few adventures with the iron-toothed Baba Yaga and the sea king’s daughter Vasilisa the Wise, who with her sisters is sometimes a bird. The sea king sets the prince to three tasks, which he accomplishes with the help of Vasilisa, a relationship sure to end in marriage. The bright, deep colors of Russian folk art, particularly the nesting dolls called matryoshka, inform the pictures, making pleasing patterns. Because the faces are built on these geometric forms, expressions are limited to a grimacing smile or a turned-down comma for a frown. Lots of folkloric elements neatly combined and pictures bright enough for group reading create a nice addition to Yolen’s huge canon both singly and with collaborators. (Picture book/folktale. 6-9)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-56656-459-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2002
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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