Publishers Weekly articles from February 1999, page 9

Publishers Weekly archives from February 1999

ONE TIGER GROWLS: A Counting Book of Animal Sounds.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Ginger Wadsworth, illus. by James M. Need ham. Charlesbridge, $15.95 (32p) ISBN 0-88106-273-1 This cacophony of animal sounds covers turf from the South American mountaintops to the African plains, from the exotic wilds to suburban...

KATIE MEETS THE IMPRESSIONISTS.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... James Mayhew. Orchard, $15.95 (32p) ISBN 0-531-30151-6 On Grandma's birthday, Katie goes with her to a museum and encounters some of the subjects in five paintings: two each by Monet and Renoir and one by Degas. She closes her eyes in...

THE OLD PIRATE OF CENTRAL PARK.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Robert Priest. Houghton, $15 (32p) ISBN 0-395-90505-2 Like a series of post-modern woodcuts, the fluid lines of Priest's (The Town That Got Out of Town) sleek airbrushed enamel-on-clayboard illustrations unfold in a sequence of...

THE LOW-DOWN LAUNDRY LINE BLUES.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... C.M. Millen, illus. by Christine Davenier. Houghton, $15 (32p) ISBN 0-395-87497-1 Snazzy rhyming verse and breezy watercolor illustrations create a rollicking flirtation with the blues in this surefire cure for the doldrums. Determined...

DREAMS ARE MORE REAL THAN BATHTUBS.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Susan Musgrave, illus. by Marie-Louise Gay. Orca (800-210-5277), $14.95 (32p) ISBN 1-55143107-6 Using self-consciously childlike phrasings and digressions, the text introduces a girl who dreads the first day of school. Gay (Lizzie's...

THE BONE KEEPER.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Megan McDonald, illus. by G. Brian Karas. DK Ink/Jackson, $16.95 ISBN 0-7894-2559-9 In a mythic narrative voice accompanied by primitive images, McDonald (Is This a House for Hermit Crab?) describes a mysterious old woman who sifts sand...

WHAT DO ILLUSTRATORS DO?(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Eileen Christelow. Clarion, $15 ISBN 0-395-90230-4 Christelow escorts readers behind the scenes for a fascinating peek at the creative process in this companion to What Do Authors Do? Here she tracks the efforts of two fictitious artists,...

RAISING SWEETNESS.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Diane Stanley illus. by C. Brian Karas. Putnam, $15.99 (32p) ISBN 0-399-23225-7 In the amiable Saving Sweetness, Stanley and Karas introduced a clumsy and golden-hearted sheriff who adopts little Sweetness and her seven fellow orphans....

ROSA'S PARROT.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Jan Wahl, illus. by Kim Howard. Whispering Coyote, $15.95 (32p) ISBN 1-58089-011-3 A mischievous parrot wreaks havoc when he plays a trick on his hard-of-hearing owner in this jaunty tale of friendship and forgiveness. Rosa dotes on...

THE CANNING SEASON.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Margaret Carlson, illus. by Kimanne Smith. Carolrhoda, $19.93 (40p) ISBN 1-5705-260-1; paper $7.95 -283-0 Based on a hurtful incident in her own childhood, Carlson's muddled story (previously published in Cricket magazine) opens as...

CENTURY FARM: One Hundred Years on a Family Farm.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Cris Peterson, photos by Alvis Upitis. Boyds Mills, $16.95 ISBN 1-56397-7 10-9 Peterson assumes the likable voice of her husband, Gary, fashioning a folksy, lyrical portrait of the farm his great-grandfather started in the 1890s. "I grew...

DIVE! My Adventures in the Deep Frontier.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Sylvia A. Earle. National Geographic, $18.95 (64p) ISBN 0-7922-7144-0 Marine biologist Earle (Sea Change) makes a compelling argument that the ocean, rather than space, is the next frontier waiting to be explored in this personable...

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE ATTACK OF THE TALKING TOILETS.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Day Pilkey. Scholastic/Blue Sky, $16.95 (l44p) ISBN 0-590-63136-5; paper $3.99; -63427-5 In this worthy sequel to The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Pilkey maintains the original's satiric, self-referential formula as he revisits...

STRUDEL STORIES.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Joanne Rocklin. Delacorte, $14.95 (144p) ISBN 0-385-32602-5 In her tender collection of connected vignettes, Rocklin (For Your Eyes Only) identifies the secret ingredient for the strudel prized by generations of a Jewish family: the...

DANCE FOR THE LAND.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Clemence McLaren. S&S, $16 (160p) ISBN 0-689-82393-2 In McLaren's (Inside the Walls of Troy) novel set in Hawaii, political issues overshadow the protagonist's journey to self-discovery. When Kate's father decides that the family should...

PLANNING THE IMPOSSIBLE.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Mavis Jukes. Delacorte, $14.95 ISBN 0-385-32243-7 Not a whole lot has changed in Mr. Elmo's sixth-grade class since Expecting the Unexpected. In this equally hilarious and energetic sequel, River, the irrepressible heroine, is still...

SPEAKING OF JOURNALS: Children's Book Writers Talk About Their Diaries, Notebooks and Sketchbooks.(Review)(Children's Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1999... Edited by Paula W Graham. Boyds Mills, $14.95 ISBN 1-56397-741-9 In this awkwardly framed compendium, Graham interviews 27 children's authors of varying degrees of fame, asking them to reflect on the role of journal-writing in their...

BOB AND BENTLY ON BOARD.
February 1, 1999... Adapted from picture books by William Joyce, Baseball Bob (taken from Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo) and Bently & egg make jewel-like little board books. The baseball-playing dinosaur and the egg-rescuing frog Bently...

BE MINE.
February 1, 1999... Jokes, trivia, poems and lore fill the flower- and ribbon-festooned illustrations in Let's Celebrate Valentine's Day by Peter and Connie Roop, illus. by Katy Keck Arnsteen. Readers will learn how to say "I love you" in Zulu and how to...

TRUCK STOP.
February 1, 1999... An ode to trucks, from tractor trailers to the ice cream-peddling variety, I Love Trucks! by Philemon Sturges, illus. by Shari Halpern, pairs light verse with bright cartoon compositions reminiscent of Byron Barton. Digging, sweeping,...

DIAMONDS ARE A KID'S BEST FRIEND.
February 1, 1999... Baseball fans can learn history and counting in new books. With the help of a baseball card, Joe travels back in time to 1947 Brooklyn and meets Jackie Robinson in Jackie & Me by Dan Gutman. This companion novel to Honus & Me recounts the...

ITSY BITSY STORY.
February 1, 1999... A picture book version of the familiar rhyme, The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Lorianne Siomades, features collage illustrations of painted papers. The cross-eyed, T-shirted arachnid is armed with a flashlight for his ascent of the waterspout; a...

RED RIDING HOOD MATINEE.
February 1, 1999... With die-cut, accordion-folded, laminated panels, Little Red Riding Hood, illus. by Charlotte Roederer, joins Goldilocks and the Three Bears in the Little Puppet Theater series. The book folds out to double as a theater: from one side a child...

DOWN BY THE RIVER.
February 1, 1999... The second of a planned four-volume comic-book style adaptation of Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows (Vol. 2: Mr. Toad) from Michel Plessix finds Toad infatuated with the automobile-so much so that he gets sentenced to 20 years for...

THE LETTERS ARE LOST.
February 1, 1999... THE LETTERS ARE LOST Lisa Campbell Ernst. Picture Puffin, $5.99 ISBN 0-14055663-X. PW called this ABC primer featuring wooden alphabet blocks "inviting and stimulating." Ages 2-6. (Jan.)

RED WOLF COUNTRY.
February 1, 1999... RED WOLF COUNTRY Jonathan London, illus. by Daniel San Souci. Picture Puffin, $5.99 ISBN 0-14-056430-0. A pair of red wolves survives a hard winter; PW praised the "elegant" watercolors and "lyrical" prose. Ages 3-8. (Jan.)

THE TRUE TALE OF JOHNNY APPLESEED.
February 1, 1999... THE TRUE TALE OF JOHNNY APPLESEED Margaret Hodges, illus. by Kimberly Bulcken Root. Holiday, $6.95 ISBN 0-82341509-0. No tall tale, this account of eccentric Johnny Chapman, who planted apple seeds far into the unsettled West, is grounded in...

BABUSHKA BABA YAGA.
February 1, 1999... BABUSHKA BABA YAGA Patricia Polacco. Putnam/PaperStar, $5.99 ISBN 0-698-11633-X. This "direct yet resonant" retelling of a Russian folktale has "sumptuous colors, a rich melange of patterns and textures-and even a sprinkling of forest...

MORE STORIES HUEY TELLS.
February 1, 1999... MORE STORIES HUEY TELLS Ann Cameron, illus. by Lis Toft. Knopf, $4.99 ISBN 0-679-88363-0. This lively chapter book continues the adventures of Julian, younger brother Huey and the rest of their family. Ages 5-9. (Jan.)

JUSTIN AND THE BEST BISCUITS IN THE WORLD.
February 1, 1999... JUSTIN AND THE BEST BISCUITS IN THE WORLD Mildred Pitts Walter. Knopf, $4.99 ISBN 0-679-80346-7. "Refreshing, likable characters, an exciting rodeo and a history of the black cowboys combine to create a very special story," said PW. Ages...

PROMISE ME THE MOON.
February 1, 1999... PROMISE ME THE MOON Joyce Annette Barnes. Puffin, $4.99 ISBN 0-14-038040-X. Now in eighth grade, the heroine of The Baby Grand, the Moon in July, and Me still plans on being the first African American woman to land on the moon, but problems...

NO TURNING BACK.
February 1, 1999... A Novel of South Africa Beverley Naidoo. HarperTrophy, $4.95 ISBN 0-06-440749-7. In a starred review, PW called this powerful novel "a rare and moving glimpse" into the life of a homeless boy in the suburbs of Johannesburg. Ages 8-12. (Jan.)

THE TALES OF UNCLE REMUS.
February 1, 1999... The Adventures of Brer Rabbit Julius Lester, illus. by Jerry Pinkney. Puffin, $6.99 ISBN 0-14-130347-6. Lester juxtaposes a contemporary voice and settings (like shopping malls) with some dialect in these "wonderfully funny folktales," said...

ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY.
February 1, 1999... Five journeys to Freedom. Doreen Rappaport. HarperTrophy, $4.95 ISBN 0-06-446169-6. In a starred review, PW praised this "concisely wrought volume"; five 18th- and 19thcentury slaves attain freedom in these "inherently suspenseful accounts."...

HELP! I'M TRAPPED IN A MOVIE STAR'S BODY.
February 1, 1999... HELP! I'M TRAPPED IN A MOVIE STAR'S BODY Todd Strasser. Scholastic/Apple, $3.99 ISBN 0-590-97803-9. lake Sherman trades bodies with a famous actor in this series addition. Ages 9-12. (Jan.)

A DISTANT ENEMY.
February 1, 1999... A DISTANT ENEMY Deb Vanasse. Puffin, $4.99 ISBN O-14-038670-X. Coming of age in a remote Alaskan village, a mixed-race boy lashes out in anger. In a starred review, PW called this sensitive first novel a vivid portrait of modern Eskimo...

THE NEW OXFORD TREASURY OF CHILDREN'S POEMS.
February 1, 1999... THE NEW OXFORD TREASURY OF CHILDREN'S POEMS Edited by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart Clark. Oxford, $15.95 ISBN 0-19-276196-X. In a superbly edited anthology, more than 130 spirited, mostly British poems, classics as well as those...

GOING SOLO.
February 1, 1999... GOING SOLO Roald Dahl. Puffin, $5.99 ISBN 0-14-130310-7. The second volume of the beloved British writer's autobiography, after Boy, follows Dahl to his first job, working for an oil conglomerate in Africa, and then into WWII and his career...

PAPERBACK BEST SELLERS.(Bibliography)
February 1, 1999... PAPERBACK BEST SELLERS Last Weeks MASS MARKET Week on List 1 The Street Lawyer. John Grisham. 1 3 Dell/Island, $7.99...

HARDCOVER BESTSELLERS.(Bibliography)
February 1, 1999... HARDCOVER BESTSELLERS Last Weeks FICTION Week on List 1 Southern Cross. Patricia Cornwell. 1 2 Putnam,...