Imagine you’re a four-foot-tall girl visiting a Grandmother that you never knew you had and you find a beautiful, 100-year-old doll that comes alive in your hands. Imagine you’re a three-and-a-quarter-inch ceramic doll who is a princess and whose new servant girl, Zoey, is the third generation to bring you to life with tears. Imagine a fanciful, doll-coming-to-life story that turns into a disturbing tale of abandonment. An intrusive narrator poses questions to readers and sets up the dual point of view. Zoey and her mom’s arrival at Grandma Hazel’s immediately starts with arguing and tension. Zoey avoids the spitefulness by playing with the doll. Just 22 pages from the end, Zoey, and readers, realize what’s happening, as she watches her mom get in the car and drive away without a hug or kiss, just the words, “I need to be by myself”—the only clue to this betrayal was that her mom didn’t bring a suitcase. That the story takes place in one day lends immediacy, but young girls expecting a sweet doll story are likely to be shocked by the abrupt ending, which leaves no hope or happiness. Sayles’s final art not seen. (Doll fantasy. 6-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-375-85691-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
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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