Review by New York Times Review
Cloudette, an impeccably cute cloud, has ambitions that outpace her modest size. "She wanted to make a brook babble. She wanted to make a waterfall fall. And she thought nothing would be more fun than giving some kids a day off from school." Her tale raises questions relevant to little children: Is there anything good about being small? Will I ever be as good as the big kids? What do clouds do anyway? They'll like the answers. THE VOYAGE OF TURTLE REX, by Kurt Cyrus. 40 pp. Harcourf. $16.99 (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Unbeknown to many a dinosaur enthusiast, sea turtles and plesiosaurs were prehistoric contemporaries, and this vision of their undersea lives will offer respite to those readers - child and parent alike - who've overdosed on dino dictionaries and Tyrannosaurus rex. With oversize, comics-inflected artwork, Cyrus ("Tadpole Rex") follows the lifespan of the giant Archelon in rhyming couplets. It's March of the Turtles - childbirth, midlife adventure, eco-threats and all. TO MARKET, TO MARKET, by Nikki McClure. 40 pp. Abrams. $17.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) With her distinctive cut-paper artistry, McClure ("Mama, Is It Summer Yet?"), follows a young boy and his mother on market day, when they shop for apples, kale, honey, smoked salmon and other green-market items, and traces each to its source. The style evokes a Robert McCloskey world of home-jarred jams, which may appeal more to parents, but kids will love learning how milk is curdled and honey collected from hives. SEASONS, by Anne Crausaz. 48 pp. Kane Miller. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) This beautifully illustrated French import stands out from many guides to the seasons by framing the weather in terms of a child's sensory experience. Crausaz knows the preschool audience well. Spring brings ladybugs; summer is about fireflies. "The wind is blowing the ants with the seeds. Let's follow them." With its mushrooms, chestnuts and fog, "Seasons" comes across as très Francais, but will appeal to all children. ENERGY ISLAND How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World. By Allan Drummond. 40 pp. Frances Foster. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 6 to 10) "Energy Island" opens with the power of wind captured by a pin wheel, an illustration that neatly encapsulates this remarkably accessible book about the path to energy independence on the Danish island of Samso. Sidebars explain concepts like global warming and wind energy while the story follows a class, under the guidance of its teacher, as they rally the community to embrace turbines, solar panels and biomass furnaces. WORLD WITHOUT FISH, by Mark Kurlansky. Illustrated by Frank Stockton. 183 pp. Workman. $16.95. (Middle grade; ages 9 and up) Smartly packaged for budding environmentalists and nascent vegans, "World Without Fish" combines zoology, oceanography, politics, food and global warming into a readable narrative. A graphic novel is woven throughout and together with photographs, and full-color illustrations creates an effective warning against a future in which tuna sandwiches are replaced by jellyfish salad. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 10, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review
In this picture-book exploration of Market Day, the title page features a shopping list (apples, kale, smoked salmon, honey, blueberry turnovers, napkins, cheese), and as the book unfolds, a child narrator visits the stalls to gather the goods on offer. Each item is featured over four pages. The first spread introduces the particular food and the artisan or farmer responsible for it, and a turn of the page takes young readers and listeners to the locale where it originated and offers a detailed explanation of its production ( Genine plants the tiny, round kale seeds in trays of soil ). McClure's precise cut-paper technique evokes the skill that goes into artistic and horticultural crafts, with a single color on her graphic black-and-white and buff palette, highlighting the red apples, green kale, and golden honey, until the final spread, when the family sits down to an inviting smorgasbord featuring the colorful bounty. This affectionate paean to farmers' markets extols the charms of local production and celebrates the expert handiwork behind it.--Barthelmess, Thom Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Though the first pages of McClure's (All in a Day) latest inhabit familiar territory, exploring the world of a small child in simple language ("Today is Market Day. The farmers load their trucks with carrots and squashes, pears and mushrooms, fennel and chard"), intervening spreads offer more complex descriptions of the sources of the market's artisanal food. "To plant his orchard, Michael traveled to old orchards and collected scions, small cuttings of branches, from the trees laden with the best fruit." Michael appears on the left behind a dense network of leaves and apples, opposite a careful account of his work. "Thank you, Michael, for these crisp new apples," the description concludes. The effect of each closing benediction is that of a grateful prayer. McClure's papercuts of windblown hair, vegetable leaves, craftsmen at work, and beds of hay continue to delight. This is, in effect, two books in one: younger readers can stick to the gentle introductions to sections about kale, smoked salmon, honey, blueberry turnovers, cheese, and even napkins; older children will appreciate (and have the patience to sit through) each product's path to market. Ages 4-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-As a mother and son meander through the Olympia, WA, market, a full-page illustration shows them at a farmer's table while the facing page names the food sold there and briefly introduces the person who grows it. On the next page the farmer is illustrated at work and several paragraphs of elegant prose describe each process, ending with a simple "thank you." In this way, youngsters learn about apple-tree grafting and pruning, growing kale, beekeeping, smoking fish, baking, making batik napkins, and the art of cheese-making. Market day done, the mother and son head home with their loaded basket. Reminiscent of WPA woodcuts, McClure's mysterious and beautiful images are cut from black paper with an X-Acto knife; the lacelike result is scanned and colored. McClure's art and life intersect in this stirring tribute to the connections among nature, people, and the food that nourishes them. Maximize the impact in a "food for thought" display alongside Kathryn Lasky's Sugaring Time (S & S, 1983), Bonnie Geisert's Haystack (Houghton, 1995), Harriet Ziefert's One Red Apple (Blue Apple, 2009), and Jan Reynolds's Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life (Lee & Low, 2009).-Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In this homage to local, small-scale farming, a boy shopping with his mother at the farmers' market describes the sources of the items they buy. The narrative alternates between conventional picture book storytelling and detailed (somewhat lengthy) descriptions of food production. McClure's intricate cut-paper illustrations successfully express her appreciation for fresh food and the people who cultivate it. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Readers join a mother and child on their trip to the farmers market, meeting vendors and learning how they prepare their goods for sale.Exact, masterful cut-paper illustrations bring the market's smells, produce, bustle and cheery people to life. At each stand, a double-page spread introduces the artisan and the next item on the family's shopping list (which appears on the title page). On the left, proud portraits of smiling producers selling their goods immediately humanize the quotidian errand; on the right, the list item appears in large, colored lettering followed by a brief introduction to both sellers and their products. McClure calls the vendors by their first names only, and her conversational tone feels almost as warm as a good handshake. A page-turn takes readers back to the orchard, field, smoke-house, garage or barn where their goods originatedearthy, realistic scenes captured brilliantly through bold, black lines and the use of a single color associated with each item. Opposite pages deliver lengthy, sometimes exhausting, descriptions of each production process. McClure clearly wishes to honor the sellers' unflagging energy and admirable work, and she succeeds handily through her lively illustrations. Here, cut paper reads as freeze frames, action shots of real people with cockeyed grins, tattoos, funny hats, dogs and children.These soulful images never feel statican amazing feat for such a deliberate, painstaking medium. (Picture book. 2-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
