Although the text lacks the heft of traditional folklore, the author/illustrator draws on his Peace Corps background to cook...
Yoyo’s mother says that no fair price for bitterleaf stew can be refused; to do so risks angering Brother Coin, the Great Spirit of the Market.
After rushing her preparations, the Cameroonian girl turns down a customer who offers ten-ten say-fah for her poor concoction (her mother says it’s fit only for the goats), instead of the usual fifty-fifty paid for Mama Cécile’s excellent stew. Their luck sours, and Yoyo decides that she must appease Brother Coin. When she does so, she witnesses a scary sight. The god, a caricature of a greedy man, refuses his blessing to a beseeching merchant and makes him disappear. Yoyo then uses her market bowl to make a perfect portion of bitterleaf stew. Brother Coin laps up the dish after making a hurried blessing only at the girl’s insistence. In a confusing ending, the Great Spirit says he still will not grant wishes, but gives Yoyo back her special bowl, used for collecting coins at their stall. The girl miraculously arrives at home, and mother and daughter now prosper due to Yoyo’s change of character. The slightly satiric edge of the images, combining deeply colored acrylic paintings with collage in Photoshop, creates a contemporary look for this original tale. Adapted recipe included.
Although the text lacks the heft of traditional folklore, the author/illustrator draws on his Peace Corps background to cook up a cautionary, but tasty look at life in Cameroon. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58089-368-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
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