Pick of the Day: Nelly May Has Her Say

SLJ — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:00:06 +0000

DEFELICE, Cynthia. Nelly May Has Her Say. illus. by Henry Cole. 32p. Farrar. Mar. 2013. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-0-374-39899-6. LC 2011018484.
PreS-Gr 3–Nelly May Nimble lives in a tiny house with her parents and her 12 brothers and sisters. One day she announces that it’s time to earn her own keep, so she ventures off to the hilltop home of Lord Ignasius Pinkwinkle to hire out her services. Lord Pinkwinkle agrees with one condition; the master of the house has special names for things, and Nelly must use those names when she speaks to him. At first, Nelly obliges, addressing Lord Pinkwinkle as “Most Excellent of All Masters,” and using his silly monikers, such as “long-legged limberjohns” for trousers and a “flaming pop-and-sizzle” for his fireplace. But when Lord Pinkwinkle’s “fur-faced fluffenbarker’s wigger-wagger” catches fire, Nelly has to wake him and announce the fire before the house burns down. Can she remember all those silly names before a catastrophe happens? Cole’s illustrations juxtapose Nelly’s homestead in the “Bottoms” and Lord Pinkwinkle’s “roof-topped castleorum” with deft humor and a folk styling that is sure to appeal to young readers. Nelly is spirited and clever, most surely not just another “fuzzy-dust-and-fooder” that his “Most Excellent Master” thinks she is. With one smart heroine and witty wordplay, this book, which is based on the English folktale “Master of All Masters,” will delight.–Carol Connor, Cincinnati Public Schools

Pick of the Day: Unspoken

SLJ — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:17:03 +0000

COLE, Henry. Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad. illus. by author. 32p. CIP. Scholastic. Nov. 2012. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-0-545-39997-5. LC 2011043583.
Gr 3-8–Gorgeously rendered in soft, dark pencils, this wordless book is reminiscent of the naturalistic pencil artistry of Maurice Sendak and Brian Selznick, but unique in its accurate re-creation of a Civil War-era farm in northwestern Virginia. On the dedication page, readers see a star quilt on a split rail fence, symbolizing the North Star. Confederate soldiers arrive on horseback and a farmer’s daughter’s lingering gaze betrays her intuition of their visit. She goes about her duties of feeding the animals and gathering harvested vegetables. In the recently harvested cornstalks propped up in the corner of the barn, she hears a rustling and sees an eye. Superb visual storytelling shows her hands time and time again offering a piece of corn bread, apple pie, a leg of chicken, each time on a small checkered kerchief, to the young, hidden runaway. The soldiers return with a poster: “Wanted! Escaped! Reward!” These words call out in the otherwise wordless book, and readers feel their power. Parallels between the fugitive and the farmer’s daughter establish themselves visually when the latter gazes from behind a door, terrified at this threat. An author’s note details the Civil War stories Cole heard as a young boy and underscores his intention of showing not the division, anger, and violence of the Civil War, but “the courage of everyday people who were brave in quiet ways.”–Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York City

School Library Journal» Henry Cole

Pick of the Day: Nelly May Has Her Say

Pick of the Day: Unspoken