The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Kimmel, Eric A., Adapter

Joha Makes a Wish: A Middle Eastern Tale

40 pp. | Cavendish | March, 2010 | Trade ISBN 978-0-7614-5599-8 $17.99

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Omar Rayyan. Kimmel adapts a Yemenite story to the traditional Arabic "Joha" motif concerning a wise fool. Joha finds a wishing stick on his way to Baghdad. Unfortunately, it works by contraries. Kimmel narrates with his usual wit and panache, nicely extended in Rayyan's watercolor illustrations, where humorously exaggerated characters are realized in tastefully muted colors while the action bursts energetically from elegant frames.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2010