on the child as memoirist We recently reviewed I Am Malala, the young-readers’ edition of education activist Malala Yousafzai’s memoir, cowritten by Patricia McCormick. Our reviewer tussled with the implications of criticizing the account of a Nobel Peace Prize nominee who was shot and severely injured for speaking up for the rights of girls to go to school. Talk about Worthy and Important. The trouble was that Yousafzai is so earnest and so dedicated to her cause that at times she comes across as sounding like, well, a goody-two-shoes. How do you say that? Obviously, you don’t, but just because Yousafzai is legitimately heroic doesn’t mean that she won’t strike young American readers as preachy. This comes up a fair amount in child and teen memoirs—the story may be Important, but the artfulness of its delivery may not be commensurate with its weight. Figuring out how to balance a strictly literary critique against somebody’s lived experience can be tough. An amazing story may not make for an amazing read, and it’s the reviewer’s responsibility to point that out to potential readers. On a more cosmic level, I wonder about child memoirs as art. A good memoir is life made art, filtered through the writer’s experience and craft. Even though many teens have lived astonishing stories, most don’t have the expertise to do much more than relate them chronologically and with greater or lesser effectiveness of voice. Obviously, the assistance of a seasoned writer like McCormick can help, but it would be inappropriate for McCormick (or anyone else) to wade in and make somebody else’s life into art. We also recently reviewed On Two Feet and Wings, by Abbas Kazerooni, which relates his experiences “a long time ago when I was a child,” alone in Turkey after fleeing Iran. Like Yousafzai’s, his account is straightforward and experiential, but Kazerooni wrote it as an adult, creating a tale that’s riveting as well as informative and enlightening. “Readers are often promised an unforgettable protagonist,” our review concludes; “this memoir delivers one.” I hope that decades from now, Yousafzai will have lived a long and happy life and will have an opportunity to revisit her youth—to turn her astonishing story into art. —Vicky Smith Vicky Smith is the children’s & teen editor at Kirkus Reviews. 80
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lambs.... / On Wednesday, Bisi’s goat had three kids,” and so on. When Sunday arrives, Tobi’s hen has a clutch of seven eggs, and the accompanying art shows him waiting alongside the hen as she sits in the upturned hat that serves as her nest. Another week passes, and all of the baby animals cavort about the village, while Tobi and his hen continue their vigil. Finally, “after twenty-one days, Tobi was waiting no more.” The eggs hatch, and there are seven yellow chicks to count. The turn of the page reveals that those chicks grow to be hens that lay eggs of their own, and the final line invites readers to count all of the original hen’s progeny hidden within the picture (a helpful note on closing endpapers reveals the sum). Throughout, Alakija’s colorful art, rendered in acrylics and pencil, presents a village that integrates rustic, traditional elements alongside contemporary details such as cellphones, flip-flops, cars and baseball caps. The setting is presumably the author’s native Nigeria, but it’s too bad this information is not provided in the book. A fine additional to the counting-book shelf. (Picture book. 2-5)
WINTER’S FLURRY ADVENTURE
Allen, Elise; Stanford, Halle Illus. by Pooler, Paige Bloomsbury (128 pp.) $15.99 | $5.99 paper | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-61963-297-4 978-1-61963-267-7 paper Series: Jim Henson’s Enchanted Sisters, 2 The Seasonal Sparkles return in an adventure about friendship, fairness and jealousy. Winter, the Sparkle responsible for causing winter in the human world, lives in her icy Sparkledom with her pet and best friend, Flurry the polar bear. While Winter and Flurry build a giant snow fort one day to impress her sisters, they discover a baby fox. Winter fawns over the cute fox, neglecting Flurry and sparking his jealousy. Hurt, he takes off—tunneling straight into the Barrens, the land inhabited by the villainous Bluster Tempest and his counterparts to the Sparkles, the Weeds boys. Accompanied by her sisters and the baby fox, Winter goes on a quest to get her best friend back. Along the way they face nasty surprises—booby traps left by the Weeds range from dangerous (giant mouse traps and Indiana Jones–style spikes triggered by sensors in the floor) to hilariously unpleasant (a smell so bad that Winter says “It’s like someone pooped in my nose!”). When they find Flurry, he’s less in need of rescue than they anticipated—the Weeds have adopted him and renamed him Butch. Worse, he might not even want to come home. Winter has to leave the decision up to him—the less-than-considerate nature of the Weeds along with Winter’s unconditional apology win the day. A simple lesson jazzed up by obstacles. (Fantasy. 7-10)
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