Reviews for The zebra-striped whale with the polka-dot tail
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
K-Gr 3-Two children enter a fantasy world in which "No belly is hungry./No soul is poor," where volcanoes are made of fudge and trees are made of pretzels. The author/illustrator explains that the inspiration for this book was the sudden death of her beloved father and that she worked for 10 years to create the illustrations to the verses that poured out of her in response to her loss. Despite an extravagant use of varied materials including glitter, faux gems, metallic lace, different papers and paints, and an exuberant palette, the collages do little to engage children. Moreover, Donahue's words range from the oblique ("-all trues are FALSE/And all falses are TRUE") to the platitudinous ("All that glitters is surely not gold!"). Although the author and her family undoubtedly found solace in working on this book, it has nothing that is revelatory or useful for the rest of us.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
