In sparkling, full-bleed watercolors and lively text, Lewin (Market, 1996, etc.) recreates that once-a-year phenomenon—the county fair. He begins with carnival trucks rumbling into the empty fairground. Soon the rides go up ``like giant metal insects emerging from their cocoons . . . the Ferris Wheel, the Tilt-a- Whirl, and the Flying Bobs.'' The ``4-H'ers'' arrive with their livestock and begin to brush and comb, wash and clip, powder and polish. By late afternoon the opening-day parade heads toward the fairground, ending up in front of the jam-packed grandstand. As night falls, a fireworks display kicks off the festivities, and the midway bursts into life. Lewin captures it all from the blaring loudspeaker and bright lights of the midway to the hall where judges pin ribbons on quilts, crafts, fruits, vegetables, and glistening jars of preserves. A wonderful close-up of sheep, hooded and blanketed to keep them clean, contrasts with an aerial view of the carnival at dusk. Before the whole show moves on, Lewin visits the quiet stall housing the world's largest cow, where ``a child with the face of an angel leans against the warm bulk of the great beast and hums softly.'' A pulsing, panoramic examination of a summertime ritual. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-688-12850-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1997
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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As atmospheric as its companion, Twilight Comes Twice, this tone poem pairs poetically intense writing with luminescent oils featuring widely spaced houses, open lawns, and clumps of autumnal trees, all lit by a huge full moon. Fletcher tracks that moon’s nocturnal path in language rich in metaphor: “With silent slippers / it climbs the night stairs,” “staining earth and sky with a ghostly glow,” lighting up a child’s bedroom, the wings of a small plane, moonflowers, and, ranging further afield, harbor waves and the shells of turtle hatchlings on a beach. Using creamy brushwork and subtly muted colors, Kiesler depicts each landscape, each night creature from Luna moths to a sleepless child and her cat, as well as the great moon sweeping across star-flecked skies, from varied but never vertiginous angles. Closing with moonset, as dawn illuminates the world with a different kind of light, this makes peaceful reading either in season, or on any moonlit night. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-16451-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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