cover image Aunt Martha and the Golden Coi

Aunt Martha and the Golden Coi

Anita Rodriguez. Clarkson N Potter Publishers, $14 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-517-59337-0

``In the heart of the big city,'' an elderly woman serves as a beloved grandmother figure to the children of her neighborhood. In a sketchy narrative (weakened by a tendency to tell rather than show), Rodriguez ( Jamal and the Angel ) relates the tale of the wondrous coin that seems to protect Aunt Martha from harm. The text consists primarily of exposition; the lack of a clear narrative direction makes its abrupt finish--Aunt Martha uses the magic coin to thwart a burglar--seem purposeless and unconvincing. Rodriguez concludes with rhetorical questions designed to highlight the story's inherent ambiguity (``Did Aunt Martha really possess special powers? Was the mysterious coin really from Ethiopia?''), hinting that the old woman's true power lies in her personal brand of faith. But since this explanation was never fully explored earlier, it sounds bombastic and out-of-place here. Rodriguez's splashy paintings in bright reds, yellows and greens seem intended to evoke the naive style of folk art from the American South. Instead, her wide-eyed, chubby-cheeked figures impart a self-conscious, saccharine quality to these rather rudimentary illustrations. Ages 3-7. (Feb.)