From: GraceAnne A. DeCandido <ladyhawk>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 12:51:17 -0400

I hope this adds a bit: the following is the Kirkus Reviews review of Arlene Sardine, as it appears on the amazon.com site; I was the reviewer.

 From Kirkus Reviews , July 1, 1998

Raschka (Simple Gifts, p. 273, etc.) has a way of continually reinventing the picture-book form; here, in his signature splashy watercolors and brash calligraphy, he tells the story of how Arlene, a little fish who wants to be a sardine, achieves her career goal. Along the way, readers learn how brislings are caught, killed, pickled, and canned; they also discover the different ways sardines are laid out in their containers. These facts are presented in an insouciant rhythm fully invested with Arlene's fishy personality: ``A little fish/packed in oil,/in a can,/is a/sardine./Arlene/was a sardine./A sardine/is what Arlene/was.'' The book's jacket, not incidentally, is painted to look like, read as, and ``open'' like the tin lid of a sardine can; the entire book bristles with nonchalance, but makes its points with panache.
(Picture book. 3-8)
-- Copyright ?1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

GraceAnne A. DeCandido Blue Roses Editorial & Web Consulting, New York City ladyhawk at well.com http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/gadhome.html What's Ladyhawk reading now? http://www.well.com/user/ladyhawk/books.html

Wizards do not lie; words are their tool and currency,
 which they dare not devalue.
 Diane Duane from The Book of Night with Moon
Received on Fri 11 Sep 1998 11:51:17 AM CDT