Designated fiction by LC, this account of the peregrinations of a Greenland meteorite is based on fact. Robert Peary found three meteorites on an early expedition, shipped them back to New York, and sold them to the American Museum of Natural History. In a highly anthropomorphized first-person treatment, Conrad endows the huge extraterrestrial with sensation and emotion (to be fair, so did Peary in Northward Over the Great Ice, 1898) and tells the story so completely from its point of view that questions go unanswered: What is the meteorite made of?. Why did the "snow people" (the local Inuit) chip pieces from it over hundreds of years? Why did the "new people" (Peary's expedition) labor so mightily over it? What does the name "Ahnighito" mean? Why did the meteorite interfere with the ship's compass? Etcetera. The fuller story of what Ahnighito meant to the Inuit, to Peary, and to the museum is simply not here. Highly textured illustrations feature a somber Arctic palette of grays, browns, and an intense cobalt blue. The bustling New York City scenes are reminiscent of Egielski's work in Yorinks's Oh, Brother (1989). Children may like the pictures better than the story; its appeal is limited by Conrad's choice of narrator. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: May 30, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-023322-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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