nonfiction

“…genuinely adolescent (including
occasional idiotic and immature behavior)
high fantasy is rare enough that this stands out.”
from false covenant
Butterfloose. Loth’s final two-page spread offers a nifty poetic
lesson. Zelda can pretend to be all of these other creatures, but
she’s always herself, and just what she wants to be. Loth’s minimal
illustrations are, as always, perfection, though invented
animals (and their names) are hit-and-miss. Backgrounds nicely
complement both verses and their matching creatures.
The accessibility of the text and the treat of revealing Zelda
should especially delight the very young. (Picture book. 3-5)
MACHINES GO TO
WORK IN THE CITY
Low, William
Illus. by Low, William
Henry Holt (48 pp.)
$16.99 | Jun. 5, 2012
978-0-8050-9050-5
Trains, planes, trucks and cranes and
the people who make them work keep
the city moving.
“Vroom” goes the garbage truck as it lumbers through town
and finishes up at the landfill. The train’s brakes “pssssshhhhh”
as it passes slowly by the track workers. A vacuum truck, a
bucket truck, a tower crane, a baggage carrier and a passenger
plane all do their heavy work with their dedicated and skilled
operators and support workers. Maintaining and expanding
upon the format he employed in his earlier work (Machines Go
to Work, 2009), Low presents each vehicle, with an appropriate
onomatopoetic sound, in two double-page spreads wherein a
simply stated question is posed with the answer appearing on a
gate-fold that enlarges the view even further. The machines and
workers are sharply focused, large-scaled, detailed and brightly
hued, while the city backgrounds are more subtly imagined in
softer shades of yellows, purples and browns. When the busy
day ends, the plane takes off and soars over a sunset-drenched
New York City as nighttime lights begin to twinkle. In an
addendum, carefully labeled, smaller-scaled versions of the
machines appear with further information in more sophisticated
language, a welcome aid to parents in answering the inevitable
detail-seeking questions.
Young readers who love these powerful machines will
find endless fascination here. (Informational picture book. 3-8)
I SEE THE WORLD /
YO VEO EL MUNDO
Luna, Tom
Illus. by Song, Christina
Lectura (24 pp.)
$8.95 paperback | May 1, 2012
978-1-60448-020-7
Luna’s largely interrogative bilingual title barrages preschoolers
with vocabulary in seven plotless two-page spreads.
A meadow scene unfolds with familiar animals like rabbits
and lizards, followed by a canopy of treetops filled with leaves,
butterflies, birds, etc. In the beige ocean, “Do you see clams, jellyfish,
kelp, coral reefs, starfish, feathery flowers, and sea urchins”
A family garage with the usual tools precedes a coastal scene
including umbrellas, surfboards, kites and sailboats. On a farm,
the author introduces a barn, a rooster and sheep, among other
vocabulary. A playground scene (swing, slide, seesaw, monkey
bars, bench and house) follows a child’s room (doll, rug, books,
etc.) and a lush backyard: “Do you see a pool, bushes, a tree with
a swing, a garden hose Where is the apple tree and the bluebird
in a bath” The final spread reveals a forest at night with assorted
nocturnal creatures, the moon, stars and so forth. While the text
includes many words, and Song’s collages will inspire children to
search for the items, the book would have benefited from simpler
versions of both. English precedes the Spanish text, with pertinent
words the same color type in both versions. A very limited
illustrated glossary (10 entries) follows the text.
A promising premise, marred by too much vocabulary
for younger readers. (Bilingual picture book. 2-5)
ON MY WAY TO THE BATH
Maizes, Sarah
Illus. by Paraskevas, Michael
Walker (32 pp.)
$15.99 | May 1, 2012
978-0-8027-2364-2
A young girl reluctant to quit her
playing for the “boredom” of the bath imagines all sorts of
adventures on her way to the tub.
As a snake, Livi slithers off the couch. Passing her blocks,
she pictures the statue she will build. She does a cartwheel,
suddenly a fantastic gymnast. Her sister’s music incites an
impromptu show. Livi’s guinea pigs remind her that she needs
to plan a new caper to take over the world, with their help, of
course. And so it continues, all the way to the tub. Meanwhile,
speech bubbles on the far–right-hand side of each spread allow
readers to track Livi’s mother’s exasperation as she waits for her
tyke to finally arrive. The phrases she uses are sure to be familiar
to readers. Paraskevas’ brightly colored digital illustrations
reveal a plucky girl with lots of personality. Livi may be small,
but she knows what she wants, and her determination is to be
admired, especially when her real-life skills don’t quite measure
up to those of the Livi in her imagination. Pair this one with
Christine Anderson and Steven Salerno’s Bedtime! (2005) to see
what happens when another child doesn’t stop playing when
she is supposed to be getting in the tub.
Readers will be thrilled with the ending—Maizes sets
the stage for an encore for Livi, who suddenly sees that baths
aren’t so boring after all: “I am a shark…” (Picture book. 3-6)
FALSE COVENANT
Marmell, Ari
Pyr/Prometheus Books (280 pp.)
$16.95 | Jun. 26, 2012
978-1-61614-621-4
Series: A Widdershins Adventure, 2
Widdershins is back, facing romance,
supernatural foes and some serious soul
searching.
After the dramatic events of the first
volume (Thief ’s Covenant, 2012), streetrat–turned-noble-turned-thief—and
now
turned bar owner—Widdershins and her deity Olgun (still secret
in a city with 147 recognized deities and a very strong church) are
trying their hand at honest living, but it’s not working out. When
they go back to the criminal life, they stumble into another big
conspiracy of crime and dark magic, find themselves allied with
the surprisingly appealing Major Bouniard of the city Guard
and, more reluctantly, with a disgraced nobleman out to destroy
Widdershins in revenge. Marmell’s occasionally florid writing
and hackneyed dialogue can’t detract from the gory adventures
(including a wonderfully macabre bad guy), but beneath the
action lies a deeper, if unsubtle, tale of loss and love. Secondary
characters may be types and primary characters tropes, but
genuinely adolescent (including occasional idiotic and immature
behavior) high fantasy is rare enough that this stands out.
A romp with an edge and a feisty female lead: Fans will
rejoice at the indication that this series has even more to
come. (Fantasy. 13 & up)
VIOLINS OF AUTUMN
McAuley, Amy
Walker (336 pp.)
$16.99 | Jun. 19, 2012
978-0-8027-2299-7
An American teenager becomes an
Allied spy for the French Resistance during
World War II in this briskly paced
historical novel.
Seventeen-year-old Betty Sweeney,
aka Adele Blanchard, is thrilled to abandon
the staid safety of her European boarding school after she
is approached by dashing SOE (Special Operations Executive)
agents looking for unassuming young women to serve as spies
behind enemy lines in France. “All I have to do is drop into a foreign
country, aid and train members of the ever-growing Resistance
movement, sabotage railways, travel the country on a bicycle
while concealing top-secret information, blow things up, and try
not to get killed.” At the end of every cliffhanging chapter, intrepid
Adele finds herself in a different do-or-die situation, whether it’s
unobtrusively trying to carry her bicycle through rough water
under an enemy-occupied bridge or leading a German soldier to
certain death in the labyrinthine Paris sewers. She is also caught in
a love triangle between French farmer-turned-fighter Pierre and
downed American pilot Robbie, one of whom is not destined to
live to see the end of the war. The fast pace, well-realized setting
and fascinating espionage details help make up for the stereotypical
characterizations and stiff dialogue.
Readers who prefer layered characters over racing plot
should seek out the more subtle works of Judy Blundell or
Kathryn Miller Haines. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)
NEVER FALL DOWN
McCormick, Patrica
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (224 pp.)
$17.99 | PLB $18.89 | May 8, 2012
978-0-06-173093-1
978-0-06-173094-8 PLB
A harrowing tale of survival in the
Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond
has been captured for young readers
before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara’s picture book, A
Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented
realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond’s
youth for older readers. McCormick’s version begins when
the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn’s Cambodian
neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn
doesn’t understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only
knows that over the next several years he and the other children
shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses
of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what
he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small
pocket of children and adults around him. Arn’s chilling history
pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of
children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation
and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by
the author’s choice to use broken English for both dialogue and
description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently
(and fluently) on the influence he’s gained by learning English;
this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further
reading, Arn’s agonizing story is compelling enough that
many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface,
author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)
862 | 15 april 2012 | children’s & teen | kirkusreviews.com |
| kirkusreviews.com | children’s & teen | 15 april 2012 | 863