Bloom

by Doreen Cronin, David Small (Illustrator)

Overview

"A remarkably readable, judicious and well-researched account" (Financial Times) of World War I in the Middle East

By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442406209
Publisher:	Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Publication date:	02/09/2016
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	720L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Doreen Cronin is the author of many bestselling and New York Times bestselling picture books, including Click, Clack, Quack to School!; Click, Clack, Surprise!; Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho; Click, Clack, Peep; Click, Clack, Boo!; Dooby Dooby Moo; Thump, Quack, Moo: A Whacky Adventure; Bounce; Wiggle; Duck for President; Giggle, Giggle, Quack; Bloom; and the Caldecott Honor Book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type as well as The Chicken Squad series and Cyclone. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at DoreenCronin.com.

David Small is the Caldecott Award–winning illustrator of So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George. He also received Caldecott Honors for The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo. He’s illustrated dozens of other award-winning books, including That Book Woman by Heather Henson and The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, and lives in Michigan with his wife, Sarah Stewart.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/26/2015
This smart, subversive fairy tale is set in a kingdom whose palace is made entirely of glass and whose inhabitants scorn dirt and untidiness. The kingdom was once home to a red-haired fairy named Bloom, whose magic could “spin sand into glass, turn weeds into blossoms, and grow a trickle of rainwater into a racing river.” But Bloom’s heavy steps and muddy footprints drew complaints, and she retired, exasperated, to the forest. Now, the king’s beautiful glass castle leaks, and everything else is “held together by tape, glue, and peasants.” Small’s (Glamourpuss) witty ink-and-wash drawings follow the king and queen as they enter the forest to search for the powerful fairy, but they refuse to believe that Bloom and the bucket of mud she proffers is the creature they seek. They dispatch their sweet servant girl Genevieve to locate her instead. Bloom questions Genevieve closely: “Why would the king and queen send a delicate child... to do something they could not?” she asks. “Because I am ordinary,” Genevieve confesses. Outraged that any girl would value herself so lightly, Bloom immediately begins Genevieve’s training in “magic”—up to their elbows in mud, the two make bricks and build a house. When Genevieve returns to the kingdom armed with new knowledge and spattered with mud, she thunders, “I am here!” Cronin (the Click, Clack, Moo books) juggles thematic elements with grace, mixing fairy-tale parody with maker tale and girl-power story to celebrate mess, chaos, and big plans. When seen up close, Cronin suggests, fairy-tale “magic” might really be no more than the willingness to get one’s hands dirty. Ages 4–8. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Theglass fairy kingdom where Bloom lives is beautiful, but its residents are dis-missive of her messy, muddy approach to magic, so Bloom takes her untidy ways(and her magic) elsewhere. After Bloom leaves, though, things fall apart—quiteliterally—until the kingdom is “held together by duct tape, glue, andpeasants.” The king and queen seek out Bloom for help, only to be perplexed andinsulted when she presents them with a bucket of mud. They then send meekGenevieve, a maid and “ordinary girl,” to do the job. The girl soon catches onto Bloom’s proposed solution—using the mud to make bricks with which to rebuildthe kingdom—and, after some instruction, practice, and reassurance by Bloom,the not-so-ordinary Genevieve returns to fix the kingdom: “She knocked on thepalace door and shat- tered it to pieces ‘I am here!’ she shouted.” This is anenjoyable original fairy tale, and young listeners will relish the youngheroine’s triumph over her royal elders. Genevieve’s literal shattering of theglass ceiling (okay, a door) tips slightly toward didacticism, but it’s ametaphor worth discussing, and while the ending is abrupt, it is also joyful.Small’s detailed ink and watercolor art balances the tidy restraint of thekingdom with the casual sprawl of the sprightly Bloom and the natural world.The evolving appearance of the auburn-haired Genevieve (she grows muddier andless demure in proportion to her increasing skill and confidence) alsoeffectively reflects her growing empowerment. Enjoy this as it stands or use itas a complement to Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess.

April 2016 - BCCB

This fairy tale for the modern era blooms with joy and delight. Bloom is a helpful but unusual fairy who lives in a glass kingdom. Misunderstood and under appreciated because she is muddy and noisy and sloppy, she leaves the kingdom for the forest. When the king is unable to convince her to return, it is up to the very ordinary maid Genevieve to visit Bloom and ultimately save the kingdom. The rich, descriptive vocabulary and clever dialogue enhance the story. The layout of the type and the lovely watercolor illustrations fill each page with magic.This book is a wonderful read-aloud that is fun and action-packed. It ends happily ever after, with a very positive message for children—that even the most ordinary among us can do extraordinary things.

Recommended

May 1, 2016 - School Library Connection

01/19/2015
Rogan (The Arabs: A History), a scholar of modern Middle Eastern history at Oxford, conducted extensive research in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic primary sources to remedy the lack of English-language WWI history from the Ottoman perspective. The result is a sweeping and nuanced work that shows how, in the years preceding the war, “the Ottoman Empire had endured a revolution, three major wars against foreign powers, and a number of internal disorders.” Ottoman forces were thus at a marked disadvantage when war broke out, which was compounded by hubris and poor planning: “The rush to take on two Great Powers with inadequate preparation condemned both campaigns to catastrophic failure.” Istanbul proved resilient, though, and it was only the Arab Revolt that precipitated the end of the Empire. Of the most contentious issue in latter-day Turkish history, Rogan says Ottoman documents “make a mockery of any attempt to deny the Young Turk government’s role in ordering and organizing the annihilation of the Ottoman Armenian community.” Though sections of the book are heavy on military strategy and tactics, Rogan’s multifaceted analysis touches on everything from the use of Islamist discourse in political movements to the treatment of minorities in the modern Middle East. Photos. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management (Mar.)

December 1, 2015 - Booklist

02/15/2015
The Ottoman empire, dating back to 1299, quickly dissolved after the end of World War I, and there have been few works about its role in the Great War. The empire's most famous battle and victory, Gallipoli, is often told from the side of the British. Rogan (History, Oxford Univ.) aims to correct this. Beginning with the revolution of the "Young Turks" in 1908, his account chronicles the story of the Ottoman empire in World War I and its eventual collapse. The author contends that the entrance of the empire is what truly made World War I a "world" war. And the empire's sacrifices were great: 3,800 British died at Gallipoli while 14,000 Ottoman soldiers were killed. Rogan's work is even more pivotal because researching the Ottoman Army was not an easy task. Access to Turkish military archives is limited, and World War I is rarely memorialized in the Middle East. This well-researched and well-written book is not strictly military history, however, but an overview of the last years of the empire and its experiences in the Great War. VERDICT A much-needed addition to World War I scholarship that is recommended for anyone interested in that conflict and the history of the Middle East or Turkey.—Jason Martin, Stetson Univ. Lib., DeLand, FL

December 1, 2015 - Booklist

This superb audio production illuminates a neglected side of WWI, and the origin of many of today’s conflicts in the Middle East. Rogan (author of THE ARABS) reconstructs a bloody and controversial history with objectivity and utter truthfulness, and narrator Derek Perkins maintains that same distance and balance—while conveying with stark immediacy the awful drift of events. The slaughter at Gallipoli, the murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenians, the postwar European betrayal of peoples who had fought and died for their independence—none of this “reads” very well today, however well it’s told. But this is THE source for those who really want to understand all that’s gone wrong in the Middle East these last hundred years. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

School Library Journal

2015-10-19
Cronin and Small combine talents in this fable for modern times: people who live in fragile kingdoms may need to get their hands dirty rebuilding. Bloom the mud fairy lives in a glass kingdom where she turns weeds into blossoms and sand into glass; she also leaves mud and cracks in the glass in her wake. As the kingdom grows and gleams, folks protest Bloom's mess. She takes to the forest, but without her, the kingdom deteriorates. When the royals seek Bloom's magic to save them, they are outraged when the dirty creature places a bucket of mud at their feet. So they send tiny, ordinary Genevieve to talk to Bloom. Although Genevieve has heretofore preserved her delicate hands for the frivolous task of washing the queen's sugar spoon, with Bloom's coaching she digs her hands into the mud to make...bricks! The text is set in different typefaces and fonts to help the narrative along, while Small uses watercolor washes in cool blues and warm greens and browns to indicate changing tones. Genevieve takes her new-learned "magic" back to the kingdom to rebuild, and the residents rejoice. All the characters, from royals to fairy, are white. The tale is enchanting but somewhat opaque, so metaphorical that children may need significant help from adults to understand it. If youngsters scratch their heads, take them to the yard or community garden to plant and make mud pies. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews