Lots of reviews online over the weekend. I've been down with the flu, so I'm only catching up now.
- Elizabeth Ward reviews two Fall-themed picture books "For Young Readers" in the Washington Post--Lynn Rowe Reed's Thelonius Turkey Lives! (on Felicia Ferguson's Farm) and a reissued fall classic, Lois Lenski's Now It's Fall. In addition, Ward reviews Cornelia Funke's Inkspell and Rafe Martin's Birdwing, a novel that reworks the Grimm fairy tale, "The Six Swans." Ward recommends this title stating, "The marvelous thing about Birdwing is that, given its highly literary origins, it is so tough, colloquial, funny and moving. But then, having been sent back to the Grimms, you realize Martin has merely emulated his masters. A book for kids who appreciate the likes of William Mayne and Ursula K. Le Guin."
- Nicolette Jones chooses a picture book in translation for the Times "Children's Book of the Week." The Wizard, the Ugly and the Book of Shame, written by Pablo Bernasconi, an Argentinean artist. The books' hero is a blue ogre and magician's assistant named Chancery. Jones concludes about the book, "When Chancery learns to tell the truth and make amends, he finds out how to be handsome without any hocus pocus. (The trick is a confident smile.) Readers will feel as Chancery does: “His head was dizzy with all the wonders the book contained.”
- Liz Rosenberg reviews Allen Say's Kamishibai Man and Lynn Rubright's Mama’s Window (ill. by Duane Smith) for the Boston Globe. Both books, Rosenberg finds are " about lives of austerity and dignity."
