Just before dark, a nesting barn owl hears a faint sound, familiar yet mysterious. As night closes in, sources are suggested in a series of questions: Was it ``a mouse, scurrying...? Tch, tch, tch, tch...'' or, as the owl goes out to explore beneath a full moon, ``the whhoosh of a dragonfly's wings...?'' At daybreak, she discovers the true cause—her owlets are hatching. The mystery may be a contrivance, but it works well as a narrative device to link nighttime experiences. McDonald's poetic text is wonderfully full of words that evoke the senses- -especially sounds: deftly mimicked voices (``Churrr, churrr,'' says the raccoon, while Father Owl cries, ``Kwa-kwa-hoooo. Hu, Hu, Hu'') and a wealth of other onomatopoeic words. Children will delight in chiming in, especially at the end when the sounds are reiterated, summarizing the owl's search but now understood as noises made by the hatching babies. Schindler's dark illustrations are outstanding. Almost drained of color, many of the double spreads are almost entirely black, with shapes barely suggested by delicate highlights, a starry purple sky showing through a crack in the barn roof, or the outline of a raccoon's mask. The effect is daringly dramatic and surprisingly legible from at least a short distance—which is fortunate, since the text lends itself so well to group interaction. An unusual, splendidly handsome book. For primary grades, try pairing it with Walter de la Mare's haunting poem, ``Some One.'' (Picture book. 2-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-531-05974-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A book that will make young dog-owners smile in recognition and confirm dogless readers' worst suspicions about the mayhem caused by pets, even winsome ones. Sam, who bears passing resemblance to an affable golden retriever, is praised for fetching the family newspaper, and goes on to fetch every other newspaper on the block. In the next story, only the children love Sam's swimming; he is yelled at by lifeguards and fishermen alike when he splashes through every watering hole he can find. Finally, there is woe to the entire family when Sam is bored and lonely for one long night. Boland has an essential message, captured in both both story and illustrations of this Easy-to-Read: Kids and dogs belong together, especially when it's a fun-loving canine like Sam. An appealing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8037-1530-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
