and listeners will surely imagine their emotions). A concluding author’s note explains more about coyotes in the park and around the country. San Souci’s painterly watercolors are set in frames opposite the text except at the beginning and end, where the pair enter and leave their story in full-bleed images. He includes other creatures mentioned: a great horned owl, a pair of skunks and, of course, the human visitors. And he shows some of Yosemite’s famed natural splendors: Mirror Lake, the Merced River, Half Dome and El Capitan. Published by the park’s conservancy, this satisfying story will make an appealing souvenir and can also serve as an introduction to a common but not well-loved species. (Picture book. 4-8)
EARTHFALL
Walden, Mark Simon & Schuster (272 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Aug. 27, 2013 978-1-4424-9415-2 978-1-4424-9417-6 e-book One boy discovers his crucial role in the resistance against the aliens who enslaved humanity through mind control. It’s been 18 months since alien ships appeared on Earth and emitted a control signal that wiped humans’ minds clean and turned them into slave labor. Sam, immune to the signal, fears he is the last free human and struggles to dodge the invaders, whose alien physiology is a “seamless hybridization of the organic and the mechanical.” A bad encounter with one leaves him with a dangerously infected wound, forcing him to risk leaving his hiding place during daylight for medicine—a near-hopeless mission. He’s rescued, however, by a member of the kid-populated resistance he didn’t know existed and quickly trains into one of their best Ops Team commandos. Through a series of dangerous missions—shootouts and explosions ahoy!—the resistance learns about the invaders and how to fight them, but it’s really after things turn for the worse late in the story that most of the exposition happens in one giant, 20-page infodump. Morally ambiguous decisions of the ends-justify-the-means nature add color to a straightforward heroic-rebellion plot. The prose leans toward the verbose, at its worst in stilted, padded dialogue. Walden writes more naturally in the exciting action scenes that effectively drive the plot to its sequel-promising conclusion. For fans of action above all else. (Science fiction. 8-13)
122
|
15 june 2013
|
children ’s
&
teen
|
RUBY’S BABY BROTHER
White, Kathryn Illus. by Latimer, Miriam Barefoot (32 pp.) $16.99 | $7.99 paper | Aug. 1, 2013 978-1-84686-864-1 978-1-84686-950-1 paper In White and Latimer’s third story about Ruby, following Ruby’s School Walk (2010) and Ruby’s Sleepover (2012), baby brother Leon is arriving home, and Ruby is nervous. She doesn’t even want to meet this smelly, noisy thing that will steal her toys, does she? “I hear a strange gurgle and hiccupy noise. / I don’t want to see him. I hate little boys!” Ruby conjures up ways to be rid of the new intruder, imagining turning him into a bat and blasting him into space with a rocket. Yet the moment Leon clutches her finger, the passion she poured into her fears switches to the opposite—grand make-believe stories with a new sidekick. White once again captures Ruby’s creative energy in rhythmic couplets, while Latimer’s double-page illustrations, done in acrylic paints and watercolor, reveal both the actual and imagined adventures. Although the premise is not original, readers will be captivated by this bighearted girl and all the smaller details Latimer includes, such as a recurring firefly, Ruby’s stuffed cat, the childlike art displayed on Ruby’s walls and the stick figures on the endpapers. This book was thoughtfully made and ends with Ruby lovingly holding Leon in her arms, full of big-sister pride. Even though shelves are crowded with new-sibling books, this one is a strong addition. It is the first in the series to be available in a Spanish edition, El hermanito de Ruby. (Picture book. 3-7)
HENRI’S SCISSORS
Winter, Jeanette Illus. by Winter, Jeanette Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-1-4424-6484-1 In her extensive picture-book–biography oeuvre, Winter has proven to be particularly attuned to selecting the just-right elements of her subjects’ complex lives while making them both accessible to and readily understood by young children. Here she limns the major biographical details of Matisse’s long life: A French law student recovering and on bed rest after an appendectomy is given a paint set; he discovers his true calling, abandons the law, moves to Paris and embarks on a long career as a member of the Fauvist movement. Many years later, once again bedridden and frail, he begins the final and perhaps most enduring stage of his work. Winter both describes and employs Matisse’s signature, late-career technique of brilliantly colored, hand-painted, cut-paper compositions. She enlivens the simple text with liberal yet judicious quotes from Matisse’s
kirkus.com
|