Children's Book Reviews: Week of 2/26/2007
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 2/26/2007
Picture Books
Only YouRobin Cruise, illus. by Margaret Chodos-Irvine. Harcourt, $16 (40p) ISBN 978-0-15-216604-5
Cruise's (Little Mamà Forgets) parental cooing provides soothing accompaniment to another sumptuous series of domestic portraits from Caldecott Honor artist Chodos-Irvine (Ella Sarah Gets Dressed). The book visits three parent-child pairs (including one father-son duo) at different points during the day and year. Evening finds a mother lovingly ushering her preschool-age daughter from bath to bedtime: "I love your kiss,/ your gentle sleep./ I love to watch you dream,/ so deep./ .../ I love my one, my only.../ you." The text's reverie mood teeters towards the soporific at times, but it's constantly buoyed by the visual energy that emanates from Chodos-Irvine's full-bleed spreads and spot illustrations. Using an array of printmaking techniques, she gives her colors, textures and shapes a robust physical presence that makes even the most familiar domestic set pieces seem fresh and unsentimental. The artist is at her most impressive when working in extreme close-up, capturing the unalloyed affection and physical intimacy that defines the first years of the parent-child relationship: the way a boy wraps his whole body around his father's head during an autumn piggyback ride, the utter bliss shared in a morning tickle of baby's knees, toes and feet. Ages 3-5. (Apr.)
The Police CloudChristoph Niemann. Random/ Schwartz & Wade, $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-375-83963-4
Graphic illustrator Niemann, a New Yorker cover artist, makes his picture book debut with an amiable story of a civic-minded cloud. The unnamed, roundish cloud wants a useful career in law enforcement, and convinces a police chief to let him join the force. But problems arise after the floaty white puff dons his official blue cap. When he assists some officers apprehending a robber, he shrouds them in a haze and the perp escapes. Directing traffic at a busy intersection "didn't go well, either." Even on summer park patrol, the cloud casts an unwelcome shadow on law-abiding sunbathers (and an angry dog and duck). Disappointed, "he began to cry." To his surprise, this inborn ability to rain makes him invaluable to another public department, one that wears shiny red hats and drives shiny red trucks. Niemann's crisp digital art complements the simplicity and mild silliness of his story, which takes place in a generic city of blocky, uniform high-rises. The cloud's shape-shifting ability is not developed much, but his open features convey friendliness, and he finds a cooperative job that suits him fine. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)
My Big RigJonathan London, illus. by Viviana Garofoli. Cavendish, $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7614-5346-8
Wouldn't it be fun to drive a truck across the country?" a boy wonders while playing with a toy semi in his bedroom. London's (the Froggy series) text remains simple and direct throughout ("It's time to roll. I climb into my eighteen-wheeler and hit the road"), as Garofoli (Baby Can't Sleep) brings the scenes to life with sunny, digitized pictures that put the hero behind the imaginary wheel. Playful landscapes (the truck zooms down a switchback mountain road as a deer looks on approvingly) alternate with nose-to-nose close-ups (the young trucker dunks a chocolate-covered doughnut in his coffee at a 24-hour truck stop) to cover all the bases of the trucker experience and to give readers plenty of vicarious thrills. The fantasy ends with a call to dinner, but resumes when the boy is tucked into bed (where "my big rig rolls... in my dreams"). A good choice for readers who have graduated from Byron Barton's classic Trucks. Ages 3-8. (Mar.)
Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere!Bob Barner. Chronicle, $14.95 ISBN 978-0-8118-5664-5
Like his Dem Bones and Dinosaur Bones, Barner's straightforward primer about all things penguin is anything but pedagogical. In fact, the rhyming verse resembles more of a lyrical lesson ("Cold penguins huddle close with penguin heat to share./ Daddies warm fragile eggs with tender, special care"). For those more familiar with Arctic penguins, Barner sets the record straight: that the black-and-white birds can live in both cool and warm climes. He divides his opening spread into a cool blue backdrop on the left and a warm golden setting on the right (with matching accents on the yellow-eyed penguin of New Zealand). Horizontal spreads make the most of icy landscapes and coral reefs, with collage elements introducing brightly colored starfish, and gray watercolor wash underscoring the Arctic chill. Splashy images of penguins at work and play range from those eluding predator seals to a sleepy penguin floating with its parent. At story's end, a "Penguin Puzzler" reveals answers to some of the more confounding questions ("Why do penguins look the way they do?"), while a "Penguin Parade" identifies their many types and habitats. Whether or not readers are penguin aficionados to begin with, they will likely end up knowing more than when they started. Ages 3-7. (Feb.)
Today I Will Fly!; My Friend Is SadMo Willems. Hyperion, $8.99 each (64p) ISBN 978-1-4231-0295-3; 978-1-4231-0297-7
Willems (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!) introduces two best friends in the paper-over-board Elephant & Piggie books: a naysaying gray bespectacled pachyderm and an optimistic pink porker, whose opposing temperaments serve as the bases for sparring and mutual understanding alike. When Piggie declares, "Today I Will Fly!," Elephant responds, in Green Eggs and Ham fashion: "You will not fly today./ You will not fly tomorrow./ .../ You will never fly!" "I will try!" Piggie asserts. She gets assistance from a mock-ferocious bulldog, whose barking does help her to jump (but not fly), and an amiable pelican who demonstrates how friends can lend a hand (er, wing). Energetic Piggie dons a series of costumes (cowboy, clown, robot) to boost sulky Elephant's spirits in My Friend Is Sad. Elephant does not cheer up until Piggie shows up sans disguise: "I saw a cowboy!... But you were not there to see him!" Elephant laments. "I need my friends!" "You need new glasses...." Piggie whispers in an aside to readers, ending on a sly note. Willems treats each page (or spread) as one panel, so the action unfolds briskly against white backgrounds. He provides the emphatic dialogue in varying font sizes and keeps the design details simple but effective: Piggie's words appear in powdery rose-colored voice bubbles, Elephant's in pale blue-gray. Nevertheless, even inexperienced readers will not be busy long, whether or not they pause to chuckle at the dueling characters' changing facial expressions. Compared to Willems's more nuanced character studies, these episodes feel all too brief. Still, readers will likely clamor for more. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)
Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue BeastieJoel Stewart. Holiday, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-2068-1
The aptly named Big Blue Beastie, a bored monster, believes eating young Dexter Bexley will relieve his ennui. But the resourceful, diminutive Dexter heads off Beastie's appetite by always coming up with another fun thing that the two of them can do together. In the funniest series of vignettes, they open a detective agency, solving cases with comically evocative names such as "The Rubber Glove Affair" and even fending off a Moriarty-like nemesis named Professor Hortern Zoar. By the time Dexter's stock of ideas is exhausted, the Big Blue Beastie decides it's much more fun to have the boy as a friend than a snack. Mock-Victorian drawings bring to mind the sly delicacy of Edward Gorey; every image conveys Stewart's (Jabberwocky) wit. The urbane, economical narrative, written in clipped British cadences, follows suit with its comic pith and dialogue conveyed in speech bubbles. Stewart always trusts that readers will get the jokes and be able to fill in the embellishments for themselves. A treat. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)
The Pink RefrigeratorTim Egan. Houghton, $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-618-63154-4
Egan's (Roasted Peanuts) contemplative picture books, including this story of inspiration, suit jaded adults as well as children. Thrift shop owner Dodsworth, whose tidy gray pelt and skinny tail make him resemble a heavy-set rat, likes relaxing. "His motto was basically 'Try to do as little as possible,' " although his house and store are well-kept and painted in a comfy, mellow Arts and Crafts palette. He supports himself with leisurely trips to the junkyard, where he picks up things to clean and resell. One day, he notices a rusty pink refrigerator among the discards, and admires the globe-shaped bronze magnet on its door. Underneath the magnet, which sticks despite his efforts to pry it loose, hangs a scrap of paper reading, "Make pictures." Dodsworth opens the fridge to find "a beautiful assortment of paints and brushes and a little red sketchbook." He plans to hawk the items, but on a whim he decides to paint. The next day, the magnet's note says, "Read more," and the fridge is packed with books. Subsequent visits yield fresh advice and necessary supplies. Egan's fastidious, round-edged tracings and soothing, even watercolor hues serve well his unhurried tales, which unfold in a calm, homespun fashion. This volume, like Oh, the Places You'll Go!, urges a young crowd to seek experience, while counseling sedentary adults to create meaningful lives. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)
Ghost ShipMary Higgins Clark, illus. by Wendell Minor. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4169-3514-8
Bestselling adult author Clark's debut children's book meshes two eras, each depicted by Minor (Lucky) in finely detailed, light-infused paintings. Modern-day nine-year-old Thomas has grown up hearing his grandmother speak of Captain Hallett, who built her seaside Cape Cod home more than 300 years ago. One day, while beachcombing after a storm on the Cape, Thomas finds a belt buckle featuring the image of a ship, which in turn conjures a ghostlike boy dressed in 17th-century clothing. The ghostly boy introduces himself as Silas, a cabin boy on Hallett's ship, then explains that the lighthouse outside Thomas's grandmother's home did not exist in the days when Hallett sailed—and that he and his peers had to do some quick thinking to save the Captain from shipwreckers one night. Clark takes some of the wind out of Silas's sails when the boy pauses during the dramatic tale to explain some terms ("Sober light? I don't know what that means," says Thomas; "Perhaps you would say twilight... or... dusk.... What I mean is the time just before the sun is totally vanished in the sky," Silas replies). When Silas successfully thwarts the efforts of the "mooncussers" (aka shipwreckers), he earns the very belt buckle Thomas retrieved from the sand. Later, Thomas returns to his grandmother's house, where the tale comes neatly full circle: he gazes on a portrait of Hallett, who sports the buckle as the man's ship floats in the background. Ages 6-10. (Apr.)
Fiction
Being Teddy RooseveltClaudia Mills, illus. by R.W. Alley. FSG, $16 (96p) ISBN 978-0-374-30657-1
Mills (the Gus and Grandpa books) introduces an ingenuous, likable lad whose fourth-grade teacher assigns each student a biography to write, based on a book of at least 100 pages. When Riley hears that at project's end the students will attend a tea party, each dressed as the subject of his or her biography, he is less than thrilled ("To say that Riley would rather die than go to a biography tea would be an exaggeration. But not a big exaggeration"). The young hero is assigned President Teddy Roosevelt, and during his research picks up intriguing and inspirational nuggets about this leader's life. When Riley leaves his note cards for the report on a bus, he realizes that Roosevelt would overcome this obstacle and finds a way to retrieve the cards. Riley's best friend, inspired by the generous spirit of his biography subject, Mahatma Gandhi, helps Riley achieve his goal of playing the saxophone in the school band. On a triumphant concluding note, Riley's teacher praises the boy's intrepid spirit: "Bully for you, Teddy Roosevelt." And bully for Mills, whose credible, often comical caper moves along apace, thanks to engaging repartee among the classmates. Alley's animated art enhances the tale's humor and helps capture the characters' diverse personalities. Ages 7-10. (Mar.)
Max and Maddy and the Chocolate Money MysteryAlexander McCall Smith, illus. by Macky Pamintuan. Bloomsbury, $9.95 (80p) ISBN 978-1-59990-036-X
In this comically convoluted caper, one of two launch titles in the paper-over-board Max & Maddy series, Smith (the bestselling adult mystery writer and also author of the Harriet Bean series) introduces a pair of young sleuths whose famous detective parents have been run out of business by slimy Professor Sardine. When the siblings receive a letter from a wealthy Swiss banker, asking for their help to solve a string of bank robberies (involving a Saint Bernard, as it turns out), they eagerly hop on a plane. Quick-thinking Max hatches a plan to place an ad in the paper announcing that their (borrowed) Saint Bernard needs a new home, believing that the person who has been orchestrating the canine crimes will answer the ad. The scheme works flawlessly, and some readers may guess to whom the clues will lead.... Smith adds some snippets of slapstick as the youngsters retrieve the missing money, escape from a perilously high cable car and, with the help of the bank-robbing canines, flee from the villain and his sidekick. Alas, the slimy villain slips away, but he'll be back—in Max and Maddy and the Bursting Balloons Mystery (ISBN 978-1-59990-035-3), due out the same month—an equally fast-moving, lighthearted mystery. Ages 7-9. (Mar.)
The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death and Lands in CaliforniaMary Hershey. Penguin/Razorbill, $15.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-59514-150-7
Lively, first-person narrative brings to life Hershey's (My Big Sister Is So Bossy She Says You Can't Read This Book) newest protagonist, Alastair Hudson, a one-legged 13-year-old with dashing good looks, a wicked sense of humor and an enormous chip on his shoulder against his recently remarried father. As the story opens, Alastair is reluctantly preparing to go from the home he shares with his mother in Denver, Colo., to California to spend the summer with his father, whom he blames for the accident that left him handicapped ("No matter what anyone said... it was always and would ever be his fault," Alastair muses). Alastair is determined not to enjoy himself at Lumina Beach but is thrown off guard when he discovers that his father's new wife, Skyla, is not only "loaded" with money but she is also a double amputee. If Alastair's heart is opened a little by Skyla's generous hospitality and enthusiasm for life, it remains closed to his father, whom Alastair quickly surmises is as self-centered and shallow as always. Two subplots, one involving Skyla's celebrity niece and another focusing on a gruff, retired coach, who teaches Alastair how to swim competitively, add extra dimension to this story about family conflicts that can become long-term grudges. Depicting tragic circumstances and comic situations with equal expertise, the author offers a poignant novel populated with complex, memorable characters. Ages 10-up. (Mar.)
Falconer's Knot: A Story of Friars, Flirtation and Foul Play Mary Hoffman. Bloomsbury, $16.95 (302p) ISBN 978-1-59990-056-8
Hoffman (the Stravaganza series) once again whisks readers off to Italy, this time in the 14th century, for this highly entertaining mystery-farce hybrid. Readers can pick up clues from the third-person narrative that alternates among the four main characters. Sixteen-year-old Silvano, a noble, is in love with flirtatious young Angelica, the wife of a wealthy middle-aged sheep farmer named Tommaso. When Tommaso is murdered, Silvano becomes the prime suspect (especially since his dagger was the murder weapon). Silvano, along with his falcon (hence the title), seeks refuge at Giardinetto, a Franciscan friary, where he works for Brother Anselmo, mixing pigments for the frescoes in nearby Assisi. Meanwhile, Angelica is secretly thrilled her odious husband is dead; she gains control of her husband's profitable business and keeps an eye out for a socially well-positioned husband. Isabella, wife of 20 years to the cold, wealthy merchant Ubaldo, fantasizes about her first love, Domenico. Chiara, despite being sent by her brother to live in the abbey at Giardinetto (next door to the friary), dreams of falling in love and raising a family. After several murders occur at the friary, including that of a visiting Ubaldo, Silvano, Brother Anselmo (who turns out to be Domenico) and Chiara uncover the identity of the murderer. As the solution surfaces, so do the true loves of the main characters. Even though many readers will guess where the plot is headed, the pleasure is in the journey. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
The Girlfriend ProjectRobin Friedman. Walker, $15.95 (188p) ISBN 978-0-8027-9624-0
Seventeen-year-old narrator Reed, a "Card-Carrying Dork," has never had a girlfriend or even kissed a girl, so his popular best friends launch "The Girlfriend Project." Twins Ronnie, a girl, and Lonnie, a guy, provide Reed with a "tip list," and Ronnie builds a Web site where classmates answer survey questions, creating an instant buzz about Reed. But even with his new social life, the hero struggles with some big questions, from how important appearance really is, to how to tell Ronnie that she is the girl of his dreams. Friedman (How I Survived My Summer Vacation) adds some clever touches here: she blends Reed's own identity search with his home state's search for a motto, which leads to some fun exchanges between the characters ("New Jersey," Reed suggests after a heart-to-heart with his grandma, "We'll Let You Know When We Figure It Out"). Readers might be unnerved by Reed's first kiss with a girl so drunk that she is nearly "lifeless," or when he begins watching another girl play basketball from his car, making confessions that she cannot hear. The plot does take a creative turn towards the end, but even so, readers may wish for more about Reed's dates and Web site—and less of his angst. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
Picture PerfectD. Anne Love. S&S/McElderry, $16.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0689-87390-5
Love (Semiprecious), who has proven she has a knack for capturing the essence of what it's like to be young and burdened by life, once again focuses on a teenage heroine with a self-absorbed mother. After 14-year-old Phoebe Trask's mother, a saleswoman for Bee Beautiful Cosmetics, abandons her family for months on end to pursue her rise to the top of the sales ladder, the once solid structure of the Trask family begins to crumble. Then, when the beautiful Beverly Grace (a widow) moves in next door and seemingly captures the attention of Phoebe's father, Phoebe and her older brother, Zane, bear the brunt of their mother's absence while their older sister is off at college. The author heaps on the plot points a bit thickly (their father, Judge Trask, gets beaten up by some thugs who disagree with his ruling on a flag-burning case; Zane gets arrested for vandalism; Phoebe's love interest has a violent alcoholic father suspected of being one of the thugs who harmed her father), but the underlying ties among the family members remain strong. So when Mom returns home after being diagnosed with cancer, the family's forgiveness, as they swallow their resentment and reconcile their differences, feels genuine. Love's rendition of family trauma is ultimately both uplifting and realistic, making its impact all the more powerful. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)
Ruby Parker Hits the Small TimeRowan Coleman. HarperTempest, $15.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-077628-2
A thin layer of show-biz dazzle lends some sparkle to this comfortably predictable coming-of-age tale. Every year since she was six, Ruby, now 13, has appeared in the wildly popular (and fictional) English soap opera Kensington Heights. She also attends a performing arts school, where she and her best friend, Nydia, inhabit a middling social stratum, looked down on by Anne-Marie (who "looks just the same as everyone else: tall, thin, and blonde") and the rest of the cool crowd. Several events shake Ruby out of this routine: something's not right between her parents (it turns out they are getting separated) and she believes she's about to be dropped from the show, when in fact the writers are expanding her story line and giving her the chance for her first-ever kiss (on- or off-screen) with her longtime crush. Anxiety about this on-air smooch leads Ruby and Nydia to draft the dreaded Anne-Marie as kissing coach—which leads to positive changes to the girls' social standing. Adhering firmly to the conventions of the genre, true romance comes about for Ruby only when she opens her eyes to the charms of the boy next door. No show-stopping surprises here, but Ruby's perky first-person narration will likely be a hit with her target audience, who may well be pleased to see that Coleman leaves the stage door open for sequels. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)
How to Get Suspended and Influence PeopleAdam Selzer. Delacorte, $15.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-385-73369-4
Wisecracking Leon Harris narrates Selzer's debut novel with heavy doses of sarcasm, smart aleck wit and adolescent frustration. Now an eighth grader, Leon participates in an advanced studies activity along with several of his equally intelligent, socially outcast friends. For their first assignment, each advanced student must film an educational health or safety "advisory video" to be shown to the younger middle-school students. Leon signs up for the sex-ed video and decides to deviate from boring anatomical line drawings and cheesy cartoons in favor of a surreal, avant-garde video inspired by Fellini (Leon's film is entitled La Dolce Pubert) and Salvador Dalí. He features a montage of classical nudes "with close-ups on the good parts" and frank rhyming narration that comes off as quite comical ("We stood against adulthood's door,/ trying to comprehend, and hoping to score"). But the moralistic teacher who heads the gifted program finds Leon's video "inappropriate" for the student body, and her interference results in Leon's suspension (which naturally sends students' interest in the video skyrocketing). Ultimately Leon achieves victory, as students and faculty alike rally behind him. Readers with a similarly unconventional bent may well empathize with Leon's attitude toward school, his budding relationships and the adults who seemingly don't understand him. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)
GoneKathleen Jeffrie Johnson. Roaring Brook/Brodie, $16.95 (176p) ISBN 978-1-59643-138-6
In addition to the scintillating premise of a teacher-student affair, this is a raw novel about a 17-year-old's search for a home. Readers will find it easy to sympathize with Connor, a recent high school graduate who lives with his aunt (his parents are both alcoholics; he is estranged from his mother, and his father is in a nursing home after an alcohol-related accident). Readers will also find it easy to see why the teen falls for his former history teacher, beautiful Ms. Corinna Timms, who had noticed the usually "invisible" Connor ("It terrified him. It made his blood sing"). Though it is not immediately clear what she sees in him, they begin a relationship, which quickly becomes intense. Connor soon decides that he should follow her after she moves from Maryland to New Mexico. Johnson (The Parallel Universe of Liars) imagines a well-drawn backdrop to this story, both in the steamy summer setting, and in the colorful, full-bodied characters, ranging from Connor's hippie aunt to Zach, his nerdy best friend, who also falls in love that summer. Some plot points, such as the painful reason behind Connor's tension with his mother, or Corinna's own revelations about her dark past, come late in the book and seem tacked on. But in the end, warm scenes of Aunt Syl's birthday crab feed—or even Connor's father's well-attended funeral—will let readers understand where Connor's true "home" is long before he does. Ages 14-up. (Mar.)
Broken Moon Kim Antieau. S&S/McElderry, $15.99 (192p) ISBN 978-1-4169-2932-1
Antieau's (Mercy, Unbound) moving story set in modern-day Pakistan unfolds in diary entries written by 18-year-old Nadira, addressed to her six-year-old brother, Umar. Gradually, she describes the misfortunes that have befallen her once-happy family, beginning five years ago when Nadira "got hurt." After her eldest brother was accused of raping a village girl, the sentence was "that the father and brothers of the girl got permission to attack" Nadira, leaving her with a moon-shaped scar on her face. Her family then moves to the city of Karachi, where Nadira assists the cook of kind Begum Naseem. After her father dies, Nadira's mother and Umar move in with their mother's cruel brother, Rubel. Nadira's strong, often poetic voice softens the harshness of her situation, and allows readers to experience the sounds, tastes and smells of her native land. She is one of few women who can read, and makes frequent references to Shahrazad (from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights), her role model for bravery. To the gentle gardener who wishes to marry her, Nadira confides for the first time the truth of what happened on the night of her attack: that she was raped. She then disguises herself as a boy in order to rescue Umar, sold as a camel boy by Rubel. It is to the author's credit that she preserves the humanity in these events, characterizing them as realities in a poverty-stricken culture where survival drives people to acts of great horror and also great heroism. Ages 14-up. (Feb.)
Children's Religion
God Made It for You!: The Story of CreationCharles Lehman, illus. by Kathleen Kemly. Concordia, $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-07586-1287-8
Beginning with his invitation-like title, Lehman whisks young readers into the events of the biblical creation story. Employing an accessible style dominated by short sentences and kid-friendly imagery, the author describes each stage of God's bringing the world into being. Lehman echoes a sense of immediacy throughout the text with a summation of each day, i.e., "On the first day God made light. He made it for you!/ .../ On the sixth day, God made parents. He made them for you!" The author then moves beyond the book of Genesis and brings Christian beliefs full circle in the book's final pages, explaining that God's promise to "make things better" after the fall of Adam and Eve resulted in Jesus—his forgiveness, death and Resurrection. "God sent His Son, Jesus, to be a real person... He did it for you!" Kemly's airy pencil and pastel artwork captures the text's blend of reverence and friendliness. A note for parents about incorporating the book's themes into everyday life is included. Ages 5-8. (Jan.)
The Story of GiraffeGuido Pigni and
Ronald Hermsen, illus. by Pigni. Front Street (Boyds Mills, dist.), $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-932425-87-1
This sweetand quirky spin on the Noah's Ark story begins as a lonely giraffe seeks a female partner with a long neck and spots like his own, all at the behest of a white-bearded man holding an umbrella in the rain. Giraffe searches the ends of the earth asking a bevy of other creatures for help along the way, but to no avail. All his traveling takes him far from Noah (who is named later in the book) and his friends, but when Giraffe gets back home, he has literally missed the boat—the ark has sailed. Luckily, Giraffe can recall some advice he received from an affable fish and he orchestrates a soggy but joyful reunion with the floating menagerie. Pigni's unfettered backgrounds and simple yet arresting central images give this jaunty tale its kick. Young readers will find much to enjoy in this wholly recognizable but slightly outside-the-box approach. Ages 2-up. (Mar.)
The Miracles of PassoverJosh Hanft, illus. by Seymour Chwast. Blue Apple, $15.95 (32p) ISBN 1-59354-600-9
Key events from the Old Testament's book of Exodus—those remembered on the Jewish holiday of Passover—are presented in an inviting, straightforward text sure to leave readers both better informed and ready to enjoy a seder with family and friends. Chwast's (The Miracle of Hanukkah) lively mixed-media illustrations often suggest comic-book panels or animation cels and bring color and energy to the proceedings. In an appealing design element, he presents the plagues, the burning bush and traditional components of the seder in a nifty lift-the-flap format. Young readers will likely appreciate this additional interactivity and guessing-game-style fun. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)
