A PROFILE OF CHARLOTTE ZOLOTOW ~R. b k iveri an ----:;.-- - ~~ --~~ ~ of books for .rorzng -readers

Navigating the Neighborhood

THE TEACHER'S ART : Dreaming of Kansas

.,' Tales of ' Changelings -- INTERVIEW: Kevin Henkes

Imagination ... and Risk By Emily Arnold McCully

PLUS ~ New Books for Fall

FALL 2001 ______,,,, .. ...,. 1 3 >

0 74470 94662 5 :$5.95 US $7.95 CAN It's Storytime!

AUAN AHLliERG & RAYMOND BRIGGS The Adventures of

6arky Mavi~ BR OCK COLE

THE ADVENTURES OF BERT Allan Ahlberg Illustrated by Raymond Briggs * "Top-drawer, absurd entertainment from two English masters of the droll ... This is brilliant stuff: simple tales that unleash great ponderings, li ke Bert's role in the universe. He could-believe it-be a savior of a sort. Bring us more Bert, please." -Starred, Kirkus Reviews $16.00 I 0-374-30092-5 / Ages 3-U EARTHQUAKE SOME FROM THE MOON Milly Lee SOME FROM THE SUN Illustrated b y Yangsook Choi Poems and Songs for E veryone "A good way to introduce the youngest Margot Zemach of readers to a calamitous event ... * "Wam1, lively, funny watercolors The illustrations' sculptured forms and ill ustrate nursery rhymes .. . It will be geometric shapes make a pattern of well appreciated at the bedside, on the stability against dark vistas of smoke, lap, or at storytime. As a tribute to an fire, and destruction . .. enabling young artist or simply a book for sharing, readers to take in the scene and still it's a top-notch selection." find reassurance and comfort." -Starred, School Library Journal -Kirkus Reviews $17.00 I 0-374-39960-3 / All ages $16.00 I 0-374-39964-6 / Ages 4-8 Frances Foster Books LARKYMAVIS Brock Cole SHRINKING VIOLET * "Cole (Buttons) delivers a lyrical Cari Best and ever-relevant picture book ... Illustrated by Giselle Potter The tale's enigmatic quality elevates * "This is a first-class choice." it above a simple moral tale, and the -Starred, School Library Journal. scenes conveying Mavis's kindness "Potter's piquant watercolors put the will win sympathy for her. Cole draws crowning touch on this humorous tale material from fab les, fairy tales and of a shy child who saves her school play mythic ai·chetypes to create a story from disaster." -Publishers Weekly that will resonate deeply with readers." $16.00 I 0-374-36882-1 / Ages 4-8 -Starred, Publishers Weekly Melanie Kroupa Books $16.00 I 0-374-34365-9 / Ages 4-8

FARRAR • STRAUS • GIROUX

ntustration by Margot Zemach from Som e j hnn th e Moon, Some.from th e Su n Fall 2001

.contents

Essays Abou t th e Cov er Art ~ Navigating the Neighborhood ...... 4 We live on a bend of the St. Joseph River By Jennifer Armstrong in Michigan. The bridge shown here divides our land, resting between our Switch Craft ...... 16 home and the smaller house I use as a studio. Patrice Marantette, the French By Christine Alfano trader who built our home in 1833, was a farmer with large landholdings who In the Ring ...... 23 ran a trade with Potawatamee Indians in By Mary Lou Burket the area. He built the bridge for business purposes, desiring a shorter route when he took his wagons into town. Now the Reviews bridge is used only by walkers, swim­ ~ mers, fishermen, and (although I made her up) dreamers like this girl, who has New Books for Fall ...... 28 taken a moment away from her book to gaze at her reflection in the water. My wife, the writer Sarah Stewart, Features has led a decade-long effort to save this ~ increasingly rare iron-truss bridge from THE TEACHER' S ART Dreaming of Kansas ...... 7 inappropriate use, even demolition. Its By Kirkpatrick Hill future now appears solid as we await official confirmation of its status on the National Register of Historic Places. INTERVIEW Kevin Henkes ...... 10 I haven't actually seen readers on By Susan Marie Swanson the bridge, but people often come there and stand and do nothing for A POEM FOR FALL "Autobiographia Literaria" ...... 13 long periods of time. Like reading, By Frank O ' Hara what they do is quiet and contempla­ tive, so this girl's book stands for what­ BOOKMARK Ten Great Books about Trees 15 ever might be going through their heads, or, for that matter, whatever the PROFILE Charlotte Zolotow ...... 19 river has drawn their thoughts away By Christine Heppermann from for the time being. -David Small

HUBBS LE CTU RE Imagination and Risk ...... 25 David Small's most recent picture book is By Emily Arnold McCully The Journey, written by Sarah Stewart (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001). He ONE FOR THE SHELF Melba Patillo Beals's Warriors Don't Cry . . 60 received the Caldecott Medal this year far So, By Martha Davis Beck You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George (Philomel, 2000).

1 Riverbank Review

A new Young Spirit book by

Editor Martha Davis Beck Art Director Kristi Anderson Two Spruce Design Con tributing Edi tors Christine Alfano Mary Lou Burket Christine Heppermann Susan Marie Swanson Marketing Director Christine Alfano Circulation Manager Jodi Grandy Controller Greg Triplett Bookkeeper Michele Tempel Copy Editor Lynn Marasco House Artist Julie Delton Computer Consultant Eric Hinsdale

The Riverbank Review is grateful to the fol­ lowing individuals for their advice and sup­ port during the magazine's transition into independent operation: Barbara Davis, Carol Erdahl, Hervey Evans, Lee Galda, Ginny Moore Kruse, Eden Ross Lipson, Paula Qyint, David Reuther, Janet Schulman, Rebecca Sterner, and Mary Wagner.

Fall 2001Nolume IV, Number 3 Copyright © 2001 by the Riverbank Review. All rights reserved. Please direct correspondence to: Riverbank Review 1624 Harmon Pl ace, Suite 305 Minneapolis, MN 55403 Phone: (6 12} 486-5690 E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (866) 261-6729 JR Web site: www.riverbankreview.com fGr th jril ll1e Riverbank Review (ISSN I 099-6389) is pub­ e evolving human sp lished quarterly, in March, June, September, and Hampton Roads December. Subscriptions are $22.95 for one yeJr $37.95 for two years (in CJnadJ: $32.95 for Publishing Company, Inc. one ye.u, $52.95 for two years). www.hrpub.com

2 Fall 2001

Acknowledgments The Riverbank Review is grateful to the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library for serving as our fiscal agent until our tax-exempt status is confirmed, and to the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA) for an in-kind contribution of computer equipment. The magazine would also like to acknowl­ In this issue of the Riverbank Review, Jennifer Armstrong writes about edge the contributions of individual donors children's need to freely explore the communities they live in. She to the Riverbank Review Transition Fund. remarks on the fact that mobility is a characteristic of many protag­ Contributors through August 28, 2001 in­ onists in children's fiction, and she asks a provocative question: If clude: Isabel Baker, Kathryn Beck, Dorothy Bickley, Barbara Borsi, Tom Braun, Cathy this freedom is central to an exciting narrative and to character devel­ Brockington, Margaret Bruell, Bruce Burket, opment, why do we not also recognize it as essential in the lives of Irene Haas Clark, Nancy Collins-Warner, Tara real children? Crudden, Kathleen Dahl, Tracey Daniels, Many of us might wish for our children to have broader territory Barbara Davis, David Brion Davis and Toni Davis, Frannie Davis, Jeremiah Davis, to roam in. As a city-dwelling parent, I'm conscious of the narrow­ Deborah Dean, Sue Disbrow, Jan Donley, ness of the boundaries imposed on my own sons. Yet I'm reminded Francesca Eastman, Minnie Ellmauer, of an observation attributed to the narrator's grandfather in Franz Kafka's Darlene Frybarger, Beverly Gallagher, Barb "A Country Doctor" (in a segment entitled "The Next Village"): "Life Gecas, Arthur and Bonnie Geisert, Laura Gimby, Arnold Griese, Kathleen Hall, Donna is astoundingly short. To me, looking back over it, life seems so fore­ Hanson, Anne Hernandez, Jean Hilligas, shortened that I can scarcely understand, for instance, how a young Susan Hopkins, Linda Hoyer, Patricia man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid Hubbell, the Ronald Hubbs family, Treva that- not to mention accidents-even the span of a normal happy life Inzerillo, Margaret Jensen, Marthe Jocelyn, may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey." Joanna Johnson, Nancy Johnson, Bruce and Coleen Johnston, Elizabeth Orton Reading is one form of adventurous journeying. Working through Jones, Deborah Keenan, X. J. and Dorothy a novel, a child constructs each step with his or her imagination. I Kennedy, Linda Koeckert, Pat Koegh, sometimes worry that our well-meaning efforts to get children to read Corinne Kuhlmann-McHie, Colette Lafond, are a bit too goal-oriented-or perhaps have the wrong goals. Do we Nina Lehman, Michael Libera, Carolyn Malden, Anthony Manna, Denise Matulka, want them to be avid readers so that they will do better in school, Michele Melander, Susan Messerich, Tracy score higher on tests, and have broadened opportunities as adults? Morsi, Cathy Morton, Bonnie Percival, Mary Though I've read plenty of material that makes such claims (and, I'll Ann Peterson, Rebecca Rapport, Martha admit it, I've used some of it in my shameless promotion of this mag­ Rice, Lisa Brown Roberts, Cheryl Robertson, Mary Lahr Schier, Joyce Sidman, Margot azine!) in my heart I know that reading isn't necessarily the magic Snyder, Lee Straayer, Lauren Stringer, Kelly door to those appealing ends. Telech,Joan Thron,Joanne Toft, Nancy Torok, Yet it is a door to worlds and experiences that are inaccessible by Jean Troy-Smith, Beth Warner, Claudia other means. I want my boys to feel the drift of Huck's raft down­ Warner, Jinx Watson, Dianne Weaver, and river. I want them to lie awake after reading Tuck Everlasting, thinking Elizabeth Wright. about the great wheel of life. I want lines of poetry to find them and -----=- befriend them, ribboning through their minds throughout their Individuals interested in supporting the days. To me, the love of reading is a gift of tremendous value in and Riverbank Review through tax-deductible of itself, with effects as far-reaching as they are unpredictable and contributions are encouraged to contact the magazine. Contributions must be made to unmeasurable. It is with this conviction that the Riverbank Review is the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, published each season. but should be sent to the Riverbank Review -Martha Davis Beck at the address on the opposite page.

3 Riverbank Review

Navigating the Neighborhood

Only fictional children seem able to get around town by themselves these days. By Jennifer Armstrong

ecause my husband writes books about urban planning, community serves as a training ground I have come to understand and appreciate the kind of for adult life. In Robert McCloskey's Homer Price, Bcommunity design that places the needs of people above published in 1943, the title character the convenience of cars-communities where people without cars lives outside the Midwestern town of (children, the elderly, the poor, or those who simply don't wish to Centerburg, and he gets himself back and forth with complete freedom. The own an automobile) can participate in gated communities have segregated child­ town includes the barbershop, Hirsh's civic life by walking, biking, or taking ren from most civic functions; where Clothing Store, a cafe owned by Homer's public transit. I also happen to live in transportation to almost everything de­ Uncle Ulysses, a movie theater, and such a community. Saratoga Springs, pends on Mom's willingness and avail­ any number of unnamed establishments New York, is a classic main street town. ability to be the family chauffeur; and within easy reach of residential neigh­ I can easily walk to my office, the bank, where walking along the side of a six­ borhoods. Homer is part of this town, the post office, the arts center, the health lane commercial highway strip can be a comfortable in it, and known to all. He food store, the supermarket, city hall, life-threatening excursion. has easy conversations with the sheriff the park, various coffee shops, the book­ Realistic children's fiction can be and a connection to most other adults store, the library, dozens of restaurants divided into three broad categories: in the town. -in fact, to almost every civic, cultur­ novels that are both written and set in Donald Sobol's Encylopedia Brown al, and commercial institution our town an earlier time period; books written mysteries, written in the 1950s through has to offer. This is the kind of commu­ today, in which the story is set in an the 1970s, are set in the seaside town of nity that traditionally has served as the earlier time; and books written and set Idaville, which boasts three movie the­ setting for much realistic children's fic­ in the present. In a striking majority of aters, several churches, a synagogue, four tion. Interestingly, this continues to be all the above, the setting is a small, nav­ banks, a delicatessen, antique stores, and true, despite the fact that fewer and fewer igable community in which the young Mr. Sweeney's auto body shop. Ency­ children live in such an environment. protagonist moves around without adult lopedia solves his cases primarily on One of the primary characteristics assistance, supervision, or mediation. foot from his neighborhood detective of juvenile novels is the protagonist's Fictional kids interact freely with peo­ agency headquarters, and he gets around mobility and independence. This is essen­ ple different from themselves in age, town without adult help. On the con­ tial to the forward motion of the plot­ background, and lifestyle, including trary, he is frequently providing assis­ and to the development of the d1arac­ adults who are not family members or tance to adults (particularly his father, ters. In fantasy and science fiction, kids teachers (a group that contemporary the police chief) as he solves those dev­ zoom around on magic broomsticks d1ildren are frequently warned to avoid). ilishly tricky crimes. and tumble down rabbit holes. In real­ Unencumbered by parents, mobile kids Cities have also been a setting for istic fiction, kids walk, ride their bikes, learn how to comport themselves as many children's and young adult novels, or take the Number 7 bus. This cannot citizens, not as aliens beamed in from and urban kids in these books have happen convincingly in the suburban the housing subdivisions. They are able often been very mobile indeed-perhaps sprawl that now covers so much of our to develop naturally: they are not stunt­ because cities have traditionally been country, where single-use zoning and ed or confined. A traditional, navigable conglomerations of neighborhoods, each

4 Fall 2001

nearby contruction whirls in eye-sting­ ing dust devils across newly paved streets, where there is constant smoke from the clear-cutting and burning of trees razed to make way for more cul-de-sac hous­ ing. This is no futuristic, dystopian fan­ tasy but an accurate picture of much of suburbia today. In The Girls, by Amy Goldman Koss (2000), five suburban girls Illustration by Robert McCloskey, spend much of the novel in their par­ from Homer Price ents' cars. Their lives are dominated by driving. It seems fitting that this is a novel with a concentration of businesses and bikes all over the 1960s town of Antler, in which fear, intimidation, and power­ civic attractions within easy reach. In Texas: to the Dairy Maid, the bowling lessness are the prevailing emotions. Louise Fitzhugh's 1964 novel, Harriet alley, the Wag-A-Bag grocery, the pub­ Most children today spend a large the Spy, the title character navigated lic library, the church, the post office. part their time subjected to the numb­ herself along her New York City spy Though these books are all set in the ing tedium of the car and highway-or route with complete ease, her pocket of twentieth century, in times and settings waiting for their rides to come. But very the city feeling very much like a town. remembered by many adults, they few of today's realistic novels reflect While these stories were written in have the feel of historical fiction. To this world, except to show its insidious another era, they still hold appeal for some people, this kind of mobility on effects. Ifthis car-bound tedium doesn't young readers. And many writers today the part of children is imaginable only make for good fiction, how can anyone (including those whose books have in a historical context; it's a whiff of think it makes for a good childhood? achieved the greatest critical acclaim nostalgia from the good old days. Children's literature is telling us and popular readership) have chosen Yet in Wendelin van Draanen's Sam­ that young people-and adults too, for to set their work in similar "navigable" my Keyes mysteries, we have contempo­ that matter-need real communities. environments of the mid-twentieth rary stories featuring a very contemporary Not the supposedly safe enclaves of century. young detective. The town of Santa suburban developments, but commu­ Richard Peck has given us the small Martina is Sammy's stomping ground. nities where kids can walk from school Illinois farm town where Grandma Her parents are not available to drive to the public library, to the movies, to Dowd el lives, in A Long Way from Chica­ her anywhere, and her grandmother is their friends' houses, or to shops where go and in this year's Newbery Medal­ unable to. She walks in her hightop they can spend their allowance on winningA }far Down Yonder. The Dowdel sneakers from her grandmother's high comic books without maternal surveil­ grandkids begin their yearly visits to this rise to school, to the shopping mall, to lance. If we don't work to reclaim the town in the 1930s. As Joey says, "We'd her friends' houses, to main street shops, cities and towns that allow this, the stroll uptown in those first days. It was and to the county courthouse to solve worlds inhabited by Homer Price, Joey only a short block of brick buildings: her cases. If necessary, she catches the Dowdel, and Sammy Keyes will even­ the bank, the insurance agency, Moore's bus. She is unstoppable. tually seem as much a fantasy Store, and the Coffee Pot Cafe." Whether A disturbing complement to as Hogwarts School or Won­ they're in town or out in the country­ Sammy Keyes's adventures can derland.-=- side, the kids are free to come and go be found in the few contempo­ without relying on their formidable rary novels that are set in the fennifer Armstrong is the author of grandmother for assistance. Patricia Reilly contemporary suburbs-the en­ many books for y oung readers, includ­ Giff's 1997 novel, Lily's Crossing, shows vironment that is home to so ing Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, Black-Eyed Susan, and In us a girl living in 1940s Rockaway, New many kids today. In Tangerine, a My Hands: Memories of a Holo­ York, who either walks or rows herselfin dark and compelling novel by caust Rescuer. a dinghy everywhere she needs to go. Edward Bloor, suburbia is a In Kimberly Willis Holt's 1999 novel, frightening place where sink­ When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, holes open up in the school Illustration by Louise Fitzhugh, Toby and Cal either walk or ride their playing fields, where sand from from Harriet the Spy

5 W~ fr~Jin W~lwl?J Medali&t RUSSELL FREEDMAN

n this rousing account of the first true I cowboys, Newbery Medalist Russell Freedman brings to life the days when the vaqueros rounded up the cattle, brought down steers, and tamed wild broncos. With his usual keen eye for detail and careful presentation of historical facts, Freedman recounts how Native American ranch hands in the services of wealthy Spanish conquis­ tadors in the l 6th century developed and perfected the skills for this demanding, dan­ gerous work. Three hundred years later, the IN DAYS OF THE vaqueros shared their knowledge with the THI inexperienced cowboys of the American West, who adopted their techniques, their distinctive clothing, their tools, and even AMERICA'S FIRST TRUE CO IOYS their lingo. illustrated with striking period paintings and drawings. Bibliography, glossary, index. 0-395-96788-0 $18.00

CHILDREN OF THE WILD WEST ALA Notable Children's Book ALA Booklist Editors' Choice IRA Teachers' Choice Illustrated with 65 photographs 0-89919- 143-6 $18.00 cloth 0-395-54785-7 $6.95 paper

COWBOYS OF THE WILD WEST ALA Notable Children's Book ALA Booklist Editors' Choice School Library Journal Best Books of the Year Illustrated with 62 photographs and prints 0-395-54800-4 $9.95 paper

\~ :'Jf CLARION BOOKS • ___.J a Houghton Mifflin Company imprint -- 21 5 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. l 0003 Fall 2001 the teicher's art

Dreaming of Kansas

In an Alaskan village, the books a teacher reads aloud affect her students in unpredictable ways. By Kirkpatrick Hill

s a child I spent some of my summers on the Yukon River The warmth of Laura and Mary's pio­ in the village of Ruby, an old mining town in the interior of neer family? Whatever it was, I fervent­ ly hope that ifNina makes it to Kansas AAlaska. Ruby had a population then of 185, mostly Atha­ she is not disillusioned. bascan Indians, and it hasn't grown a bit in the fifty years since. The And here's Stewart. I've just come village is 350 air miles from Fairbanks, and 50 miles by boat from home after a winter in Fairbanks, and Stewart is on the airstrip, waiting to show the nearest village, so although it's not tory, demanding and thorough. I know me his little boy, Ernie, a two-year-old nearly as isolated as it was when I was a I worked them hard. But as adults they who's draped over his shoulder, half child, before we had telephones and never say, "Remember when you taught asleep. I admire Ernie and then Stewart computers and daily mail planes, it's us about DNA?" or "I'll never forget says to me proudly, "I'm reading him still wonderfully remote. When I grad­ the lessons on the Vikings." It's clear Charlotte's Web." uated from college I went back to Ruby from what they do say that nothing I This time I check my first reaction to teach, and I've been there ever since. ever did in the classroom was more im­ ("But he's too young for Charlotte's The first year I taught in Ruby, thirty portant than reading out loud. Web!") and respond instead with a smile years ago, I had twenty-eight Athabas­ Here, for instance, is Nina. She's and a nod. Stewart has held onto some­ can kids in class, ranging in age from going off to college and she tells me she thing good from his school days, and kindergarten to sixth grade. As is prob­ wants to travel after that. I'm delighted, he wants to give it to Ernie. ably true of most rural areas, people since the village's insularity is some­ But why Charlotte? Certainly the tend to stay put in villages, so for the thing I've tried to combat. daredevil that Stewart once was would most part I've never lost my children. I "Where do you want to go?" I ask. have been more impressed by tales of didn't have to watch them walk away at She has a dreamy look on her face. action and adventure. I've been a reader the end of the school year, as city teach­ "Kansas," she replies. my whole life, but as a teacher I didn't ers do, knowing I'd probably never see For a moment I'm stunned. "Why realize how deeply books are felt by them again, never know what direc­ Kansas?" children, nor would I have been able to tions their lives took. She looks hurt that I would even predict which ones would mean the I've watched my students grow up ask. "You know, all those books you most to which kids. and have children of their own- I've read to us ." When I first started teaching I had even taught some of their children. So "Books about Kansas? What books?" some ideas about reading aloud. Like over the years, from idle conversations "The Oz books," she says. "And many education theories, they proved here and there, or sentimental memories Little House on the Prairie." to be wrong. For one thing, we were shared when they've had a few beers, "Oh," I say. "Of course." taught to have organized discussions I've learned what meant the most to Who would have thought that tough with our kids about each book we read. my students in their classroom lessons. little Nina would find in those books I found I just couldn't do this. The kids I pride myself on being a strongly acad­ the material for a life-shaping fantasy? would sit in a semicircle around me, all emic teacher, heavy on science and his- Was it the description of the plains? of us in those little wooden primary-

7 Riverbank Review school chairs, so close that our knees of the great, gray, green, greasy Limpopo readers that I boxed up with disdain were touching. River, all set about with fever trees") and stuffed in the storeroom. One day I read for a half hour every day, and and wonderful, incomprehensible lines I found my first-grade girls in there, when I finished we would just look at from Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christ­ stretched out on their bellies, poring each other, like people in a trance who mas in "Wales, just for the pleasure of it. over these books. They were fascinated were having a hard time coming back The first-graders didn't miss a beat, no by the exotic lives of Dick, Jane, and to reality. I didn't feel like the teacher matter how complicated the story was, Sally! So I had to eat some crow, put during these reading sessions. We those "culturally insensitive" books were all in the adventure together. back in the library, and relegate the We were all enchanted. Analyzing "relevant readers" to the storeroom. the book-especially according to After all, wasn't it insulting to assume some educational script-would have that a child could only be interested broken the spell. It would have in, could only relate to his own life, ruined something. his own culture? These children were Another misconception I had interested in everything, everywhere. about reading aloud concerned what Though an inevitable isolation came I assumed was a language problem. with village life, ethnocentricity was The vocabularies of these children not part of their makeup. were very limited. They were village Though we didn't discuss books in kids. Reading played no part in their the recommended way, there were lives, unless you counted the Mont­ always ways to extend the experience gomery Ward catalog. They'd seen of the books we read. We had a great few movies and no television. So at time one winter talking about what the first, when I read aloud I paraphrased. students would describe to blind Mary I wanted them to understand the Ingalls if her family lived in our village. story and I thought difficult words The descriptions they came up with would get in the way of that. And Kirkpatrick Hill in her dassroom in 1973. were wonderful: the blood-red sun apart from the issues relating to lan­ burning through the thick haze of guage and culture, there was a wide and the sixth-graders never felt insulted smoke when there was a forest fire nearby; range of ages in that little classroom. I when the material we read was aimed at the curling tops of the whitecaps in the assumed I had to simplify what I read in younger readers, because they weren't Yukon when the wind and rain had made order to take in the first-graders as well sophisticated enough to have taken on the river rough. If we were looking at a as the sixth. those attitudes. picture book by Eric Carle, we'd talk I was wrong. Paraphrasing played The notion of cultural relativity had about how he made the pictures, and then havoc with the writer's rhythm and style. just developed currency when I started we'd try it ourselves, painting paper and And besides, how were their vocabular­ teaching. The idea is that kids will learn cutting it out to make collages. ies going to grow if they didn't encounter better if the material they study relates We read lots of nonfiction, which new words? So I began to read books as directly to their lives. The state of Alas­ we discussed and used as the basis for they were written. ka, acting on this principle, produced a illustrated time lines we made together When I didn't paraphrase, I found series of basals in the 1960s called the and put up on the classroom walls. Fly­ that they could usually understand a Alaskan Reader, which purported to be ing to the Moon, Michael Collins's book word's meaning from my face and my about village kids. I used literature, not about the first moonwalk, Alone, by voice. And beyond the recognition of basals, to teach reading, but I thought Admiral Byrd, David Macauley's Castle meaning, there's a delight in words them­ the relevancy idea was probably a good and Cathedral, and Jane Goodall's books selves. When I saw my students playing one, so I gave my students the Alaskan about chimpanzees all gave rise to fas­ Robin Hood, using the archaic language Reader to supplement the other books cinating projects and great time-line from the story with great relish, I knew they read. But they had no interest in it illustrations. I was on firm ground. On other occa­ at all. Sometimes I read books with a spe­ sions they tossed around phrases from When I first arrived in the village to cific purpose in mind. Marilyn, the first Kipling's just So Stories ("On the banks teach, I found a stack of old standard of our village girls to go away to col-

8 Fall 2001

lege, back when it was unheard of, told in a one-room "bush" school on the course, one of the best things that Miss me she had a terrible struggle when she Koyukuk River. The teacher in the Agnes does is to read aloud. --= got there, because half the time she book was based on a real teacher, didn't know what was referred to in her Agnes Schlosser, one of that old breed Kirkpatrick Hill grew up in a mining camp near reading. She had no clue what calling who braved the privations of living in Fairbanks and spent her summers in the village of a couple Tweedledee and Tweedledum the bush and devoted themselves com­ Ruby. She is the mother ofsix and grandmother meant, or saying that someone's atti­ pletely to their children. In the book, of efthree. She retiredfrom teaching last year. tude was sour grapes, let alone under­ standing references to the thunderbolts of Zeus. So I read my students nursery rhymes and fairy tales and all the Greek and Norse myths, so that literary refer­ ences would not be a problem for them as they had been for Marilyn. Some books we read when I thought a lesson was needed: parts of All Quiet on the Western Front as an antidote to romantic ideas about war; Black Beauty and Lassie Come Home to counter the occa­ sional cruelty to animals that children display; the biography of Sojourner Truth to teach about some of the prob­ lems black people have faced. Later, after electricity and television came to the village, I read them the first part of Richard Feynman's book What Do You Care What Other People Think,

Mr. Feynman?to reinforce the argument ~ ~ A Memoir I often made that their proper occupa­ cE tion in childhood was not sitting in ~ "This superb memoir begins with an account of Myers's family front of the TV but messing around with -g history and boyhood . . . in the Harlem of the 40' s. Soon, readers stuff and learning how it works. ~ are caught up in his turbulent adolescence and his slow, painful Even though my kids had taught me ~ development as a writer.... Young writers will find inspiration that cultural relevancy was a non-issue ~ here, while others may read the book as a straightforward account and that simplicity wasn't necessary, I ~ of a colorful, unforgettable childhood." _School Library Journal wrote some children's books about "Myers is arguably one of the most important writers of children's Athabascan children that used a village ~ ] books of our age, and this glimpse into his own childhood is vocabulary (so that no teacher would ~ wonderfully valuable, fascinating, and even inspiring." be tempted to paraphrase my books!) and were about their lives and their - Kirkus Reviews problems. I didn't imagine that they Ages 12 up. $15.95 Tr (0-06-029523-6); $15.89 Lb (0-06-029524-4); would like such a book better than books Unabridged cassette $24.00 (0-694-52535-9) about children in faraway places; I just thought they should have a book that -Walter Dean Myers's 2000 Michael L. Printz Award Winner -­ was about them, and that, unlike many Monster books written about the North, by peo­ Ages 12 up. $15.95 Tr (0-06-028077-8); ple who don't live here, was absolutely $15.89 Lb (0-06-028078-6); $6.95 Pb (0-06-440731-4) authentic. @ ~ HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks My latest book, The Year of Miss = 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 • www.harperchildrens.com Agnes (McElderry, 2000), was set in 1948

9 Riverbank Review

Kevin Henl

A lively picture book about mice and an emotionally charged middle-grade novel aren't so different after all, according to their creator. By Susan Marie Swanson

n picture books for young children and novels for middle­ new board book, Sheila Rae's Pepper­ grade readers, author-artist Kevin Henkes explores the ways mint Stick, is a buoyant book, full of movement and candy-bright color­ I that individuals work out their independence and their rela­ like Joanie. It's likely that when we see tionships in families, schools, and communities. Henkes has been a new novel from this accomplished creator of children's books, it will be praised for his attentiveness to the inner lives of children and for his more like Spoon-reflecting the sub­ sensitive portrayals of common emo­ summer visit with his mother's estranged tleties and quiet discoveries at the heart tions and dilemmas. Since the publica­ brother. Each of Henkes's novels is full of growing up. tion of his first picture book when he of resonant visual images: messages The father of two young children, was a young college student, Henkes has spelled out with stones on a hillside Henkes works in a studio in his home in produced more than twenty­ (Words of Stone), a fragile Madison, Wisconsin. This interview five books, all published by homemade paper doll (Pro­ was conducted by telephone in June. Greenwillow. tecting Marie), a plaster castle Henkes is best known for in a miniature golf course Susan Marie Swanson: I read the intro­ the appealing mouse charac­ (Two under Par). These are duction you wrote far Bonjour Babar, the ters in his picture books: Lilly, quirky, quiet novels that fea­ recent anthology of Babar picture books, who wears red cowboy boots; ture memorable characters. and I enjoyedyour account ofhow you "see Owen, who contrives endless Take Spoon, the thoughtful Babar every day"-on a postcard taped to ways to play with-and keep ten-year-old protagonist of the wall in your family's bathroom. Do -his fuzzy blanket; and many others, Sun and Spoon, who has an entirely dif­ you have other anecdotes to tell about chil­ including Wemberly, the newest mouse ferent kind of charm from that of his dren's book art in your daily life? child. In Wemberly Worried, this little whimsical six-year-old sister: Kevin Henkes: Well, we have an worrier ("What if no one else has spots? Within minutes, Joanie was busy Eeyore cup in our bathroom, so I see What if no one else wears stripes?") sur­ sweeping the garage floor. Periodi­ Eeyore every day, too. And now that vives her first day of nursery school, ca lly she used the broom handle as a I'm a parent, we read books every day. where she and her beloved stuffed rabbit pretend microphone and sang her del­ We have books everywhere. both make new friends. These mouse phinium song-Spoon was no com­ How has life with your own children children and their families are brought petition. He didn't sing; he didn't influenced your work and your views to life in expressive watercolor and black dance; he didn't drag a suitcase full about children's literature? pen artwork complemented by rhyth­ of sticks around with him, calling My wife and I were married for ten attention to himself Spoon could mic, patterned text. years before we had kids. When I was wiggle his ears, but that was about it. The Birthday Room, Henkes's most out on the road everyone assumed, recent novel for children, is the story of Henkes appreciates-and insight­ because of the nature of my picture a twelve-year-old boy who gains insight fully describes-the full spectrum of books, I suppose, that I was a parent. into his family and himself during a human temperament and emotion. His l11ey would invariably say, "How many

10 Fall 2001

From Chester's Way children do you have?" When I became essentially a kidyourse!f You went to New topped it all. I was young and my books a parent some people said, "Oh, now York with your porifOlio when you were didn't sell very well, but I felt-and I you're going to get great ideas right in nineteen. Most people who work in chil­ love this about Greenwillow-I felt from your own home." What I've learned­ dren's literature get into it in less intention­ the very beginning as ifl were as impor­ ! knew it all along, I think-is that the al ways. They don't choose it as their job tant as Donald Crews or Jack Prelutsky real heart and soul of a book come from when they begin their work lives, the way or Virginia Hamilton or whomever. I within. I'm often inspired from the you did. was lucky to be tended and cared for in outside, from things that I see in my I was lucky-lucky that I chose it that way. Susan encouraged me to try daily life, but the real guts of the book young, and fortunate to be able to have different things. She was the one who come from within. It wouldn't matter if done it young. I grew up in it. My early said, "I think you're a writer and I think I had children or not. years at Green willow were extraordinary. you'll write longer books. I think you I sense that, for you, children have been I often think of myself during that peri­ should." When I first started out I real­ an authentic, concrete audience all along od the way people describe babies­ ly didn't think that was a possibility. I and you didn't need kids in the house to they're sponges; they take everything was an artist, and I thought I would make understand that. You're not one of those in. I was a baby when my career began, picture books. people who says, "Well, I just make my and Susan Hirschman, my editor, You've spoken in other interviews books and if kids happen to like them, taught me so much. In those early years about some of the picture-book artists who that's lovely." I'd often go to New York and stay for a influenced you, people like Crockett I don't test my books out on kids, and week, and Susan would give me an Johnson and Maurice Sendak, whose work I never have. On the other hand, I'm very office to use during that time. I wrote you knew as a child, and, later, artists like aware that I do books for kids. Children's several of my first picture books right Arnold Lobel and Margot Zemach. What literature is an art form that I chose, there, at Greenwillow. I got to see, first­ authors have influenced your fiction? and I don't like "adult" children's books. hand, how a publishing house worked. I admire the work of Paula Fox, So I think, subconsciously, I'm always I can still remember how I felt when Brock Cole, Katherine Paterson. But I keeping in mind that the books are for the airplane landed at La Guardia. I felt read much more adult fiction than kids, even though I don't think about a electric. When I was a child, New York children's fiction. particular child reading the book when was the place that I wanted to visit. When Do you think your reading of adult I am lost in the creation of it. I got older, the desire grew stronger. I fiction has had a strong influence on your You began the work of writing and loved to go to plays and I loved to go to middle-grade novels? illustrating picture books when you were museums, but going to Greenwillow I'm drawn to domestic drama, small

11 Riverbank Review family stories. I like Alice Munro, William attend to the intersections of the lives ofchil­ hear your thoughts on the place of visual Trevor, and Richard Ford. Those are dren and adults. Chrysanthemum returns art in children's lives. just a few authors who come to mind. I to her family with her problem from school I love writing about art. I love writ­ sometimes run across people who say and they try to work it out together. The ing about painters. When I was a kid I they only read children's fiction, because problem of Owen's blanket involves an thought for a while that I'd be a painter. children's novels are so good. Children's adult neighbor and his parents. You're ex­ When I'm creating the families in my books are my chosen life's work-and ploring places where kids ' and adults' lives novels I want to write about something yet, statements like that are shocking to overlap, sometimes in unconventional that I like, so I often make the adult a me. It's like someone saying that they ways. I think of that segment in The painter. It just seems natural to me. The love theater but only go to children's plays. Birthday Room in which twelve-year-old mother in Sun and Spoon is an elemen­ It doesn't make sense. If you're a read­ Ben is dealing with his aunt's worry that tary-school art teacher. The fathers in er and you're an adult, why wouldn't she might have a breach baby. Words ofStone and Protecting Marie and you read adult books too? Every now and then someone will the uncle in The Birthday Room are How do the activities of writing and say, "But the adults are so present in artists of one kind or another. I love des­ illustrating balance out in your life? this book." And I think, "Well, of cribing those worlds, probably because I think I'm more naturally an artist course." Whether kids are happy with I'm a visual person. From time to time than I am a writer. The writing is more their parents or not, whether they're I think I'll have the parents be some­ difficult for me. In some ways it seems trying to distance themselves from them thing completely different, but then I more rewarding when it does work. I just or learn about life through them, adults find myself imagining them in some finished the art for my second board are a very important part ofa kid's world. way connected to the art world. book, and it was fun to do, a refreshing Even when young people feel alienated In Sun and Spoon, the main charac­ change. Sheila Rae's Peppermint Stick, the from the world at large, they still have ter and his grandfather recall the time that first, comes out this fall, Owen's Marsh­ adults in their lives, and they learn from the boy's grandmother, whom they're mallow Chick, next spring. Both of them, them. Often in novels for middle-grade mourning, taped paper underneath the din­ especially Owen's Marshmallow Chick, readers, if there are adults present, they're ing room table so that he could draw on it came to happen because I'd been in misguided and the child is supreme; or with crayons. The grandparents had been the middle of a novel and I was stuck else the adults are shadowy and one­ to Italy and seen the Sistine Chapel. and needed to get unstuck. What often dimensional. Real kids have real adults When we're young, art is as natural happens in this situation is that I will in their lives, and they are often loving as breathing. Making marks on paper is write a picture book. and central to their kids' existence. So I fun. Then we get to a point in our lives My wife often reminds me that when want them in my books. where art becomes elite in a certain way. I'm in the middle ofa novel I'll say, "Oh, One of the things I'm enjoying about But that isn't so for a child. When I watch picture books are easier and they're this conversation is that we're talking my own kids-they love to draw and more fun," and that when I'm halfWay about ways that the picture books and the paint and build things-I marvel at through a picture book and at the point novels are connected. People tend to sepa­ their joy in creating. I hope they don't where I'm working every day on it and rate your picture books and novels as ifthey lose that. working harder and I goof up an illus­ were dijferent species. Could you talk a bit about your work tration for the third time, I've been I find when I look at them myself, space and what it is like to work at home? known to say, "I wish I were working there is much in them that is similar. I used to be in the studio pretty much on a novel- they're so much easier." The intensity of emotion may be ex­ from early in the morning throughout I'm drawn to aspects of both. I love the pressed in a different way, but Lilly's the day. Then I would go and work again fact that with novels I can go so much drama is as real as Fanny's (in Protecting after dinner. Now that I'm a parent that's deeper. On the other hand, I love that Marie]. They both experience real pain changed dramatically. Because my chil­ with picture books I can speak volumes and sorrow and excitement. The picture­ dren are still young, three real hours of with what I choose to put in the illus­ book characters are depicted as mice, work is a good day. I finished the art for trations. It goes both ways. but of course they're real kids. Lilly 's Purple Plastic Purse about two One thing about both your picture Visual art recurs as a motif in both weeks before my son was born. I decid­ books and your novels that I value, partly your picture books and.your novels. Adult ed that for my next book I would try to because it's territory that other writers and characters are artists, kids draw, people do another novel because I write in artists have avoided, is how carefully you encourage children to draw. I'm curious to longhand in a notebook and I can do it

12 Fall 2001 many places. If I'm drawing, I really this respect-I collect things that have picture of a little girl and the name Rilla have to be in my studio. As it turned some pertinence to the novel. There is a engraved on it. I still have the fork. It was out, my son wasn't a good sleeper so I shelf on the bookshelf where the stuff the inspiration for Spoon. (Fork didn't would drive him in the car until he fell from the current novel builds up. sound as nice for a character's nickname.) asleep and then I would park and write What kind ofobjects? I knew when I found that fork that in my notebook. I wrote at least half of In Protecting Marie, Fanny has an I would use it someday. I had no idea Sun and Spoon in the car. When my Advent calendar. This was a gift to me, exactly how. Often motifs will come to daughter was born, she wasn't a sleeper and so it was on the shelf as I worked on me in that way. Something will strike either. I ended up going through the that book. Also on the shelf was a mug me. I love that part of writing a novel, same routine. I think of The Birthday that Susan Hirschman gave me, a mug weaving things into the narrative that Room as my daughter's nap book. with a kangaroo painted on it. I think have meaning for me. I do the same What do you like to have around you Fanny talks about it when she wakes up kind of thing when I'm working on a when you work-that is, when you're not in the middle of the night. picture for a picture book. The result working in the car? Did you have playing cards like the might look simple and easy, but there My studio is in an attic room that ones that appear in Sun and Spoon? are reasons why something is a particu­ has two skylights. When I look out it feels I do have playing cards with suns lar color or why the page is laid out the as ifl'm in a tree house. There are lots of on them. They'd been in my family for way it is. That's the part of my work bookshelves, lots of my favorite books. a long, long time. Years before I began that I absolutely love and that keeps it My worktable is a huge wooden table. I working on Sun and Spoon, my wife and interesting for me. -= have some art on the walls, but not much. I were making a garden in the backyard When I'm working on the novels-not of our first house. As I dug, I hit some­ Susan Marie Swanson is a contributing editor the pictures books; they're different in thing. It was a child's fork that had a to the Riverbank Review.

When I was a child I played by myself in a corner of the schoolyard all alone.

I hated dolls and I hated games, animals were not friendly and birds flew away.

If anyone was looking for me I hid behind a tree and cried out "I am an orphan."

And here I am, the center of all beauty! writing these poems! Imagine! -Frank O'Hara

From Collected Poems by Frank O'Hara, copyright © 1971 by Maureen Granville-Smith, administrator ofthe estate ofFrank O'Hara. Used by permission ofAlfred A. Knopj a division ofRandom House, Inc.

13 BY RU/JELL HOBAN

ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID ./MALL ''One of the great children's classics of the 20th century.'' -The Children's Book Trust

"It's an extremely rich ... deeply human story. This is a book that can be returned to many times at many ages, and there will always be something new to be found in it." -John Rowe Townsend, The Hom Book

RU.I.JELL HOBAN is the beloved AUllEl.I. author of Bedtime for Frances and many other books for children and T H E adults. The Mouse and His Child was U 11! his first novel, and many consider it part of the canon of children's litera­ ture. We are proud to present a new edition of this masterpiece, lovingly packaged, and beautifully re-illustrated.

AN 0 DAVID /MALL is the recipient of this year's Caldecott medal. He says that reading The Hll H Mouse and His Child as a young adult inspired him to become an illustrator. His passion for the story shines through in this stunning visu­ ~tCTUlllE• • y al interpretation of a classic. I H ··~·· 0-439-09826-2 • $ 16.95

••SCHOLASTIC t ARTHUR A. LEVINE BOOKS AB Cedar: An Alphabet of Trees By George Ella Lyon Illustrated by Tom Parker ORCHARD, 1989

Y OUNGER/ I NTERMEDIATE Sprigs and seeds held up by realistic hands are shown alongside silhouettes ef trees in this extraordinary guidebook.

Ancient Ones: The World of the Old-Growth Douglas Fir By Barbara Bash SIERRA CLUB BOOKS, 1994

I NTERMEDIATE This glorious portrait in words and art situates the Douglas fir in its environment. Also see the author's books about the baobab, the banyan, and the saguaro. ti) ~ The Blossom on the Bough: 0 A Book of Trees By Anne Ophelia Dowden 0 TICKNOR & FJELOS, 1994 0 L DER ~ A premier botanical artist shares her knowledge and exquisite drawings ef trees­ their flowers, fruits, and leaves.

Drawing Trees: Step by Step By Stanley Maltzman NORTll LI GHT, 2000 0 I DER Studying trees and drawing trees are mutually supportive joys, according to this author, artist, naturalist, and teacher.

Giants in the Land By Dia na Appelbaum Illustrated by Michael McCurdy H OUGHTON MIFFLIN, 1993

I NTERMEDIATE Supplying masts for British ships was an arduous task for American colonists-only New England pines would do.

Detach ~ - Riverbank Review bookmark ---~- -~- - ~- --= _ - - - here.__. . of \,ooks for )'<>1Jng rca.ter~ The Gift of the Tree By Alvin Tresselt Illustrated by Henri Sorensen lolllROP, LEE & SHEPARD, 1992 Y 0 l' N G F R I I NT E R M E D I A T r In this eloquent book, the gradual death of an oak is a source of life for the thriving plants and animals that surround it.

How the Forest Grew By William Jaspersohn Illustrated by Chuck Eckart GREENWIU.OW, 1980

Y OUNGER/ I NTERMEDIATE Succession in a forest-from open field to middle stage to climax-is explained in this unusually beautifitl ea.ry reader.

Mighty Tree By Dick Gackenbach G UUJVER, 1992 Y OUNGE R Three seeds grow into mighty trees. One becomes a Christmas tree, one is rnt for paper, and one remains a habitat for wildlife.

Monkey Puzzle and Other Poems By Myra Cohn Livingston Illustrated by Antonio Frasconi McEwroov, 1984

QI D FR From the "rough brown cheeks" ofshagbark hickory to the "lavender litter" of the jacaranda, the attributes of different trees emerge through verse.

A Tree Is Nice By Janice May Udry Illustrated by Marc Simont H ARPERCOl.IJN<, 1950 Y 0 ll NG ... R The benefits and pleasures ofbeing near a tree are expressed with irresistible concreteness in this classic. Fall 2001

boo~ark

Ten Great Bool

How the Forest Grew By William Jaspersoh n Illustrated by Chuck Eckart GREENWILLOW, 1980

YOUNGER / I NTERMEDIATE Drawing Trees: Step by Step Succession in a.forest-from open field to middle stage lo climax-is explained in By Stanley Maltzman this 11n11s11al!J beautiful ea.ry reader. NORTH LIGHT, 2000

AB Cedar: 0 L DER Mighty Tree An Alphabet of Trees Studying trees and drawing trees are By Dick Gackenbach By George Ella Lyon mulual!J supportive joys, according to this GULLIVER, 1992 Illustrated by Tom Parker author, artist, naturalist, and teacher. YOUNGER ORCHARD, 1989 Three seeds grow into mighty trees. One Y OUNGER/ INT ERMEDIATE Giants in the Land becomes a Christmas tree, one is cul for paper, Sprigs and seeds held up by realistic By Diana Appelbaum and one remains a habitat for wildlife. hands are shown alongside silhouettes ef Illustrated by Michael McCurdy trees in this extraordinary guidebook. H OUGHTON MIFFLIN, 1993 Monkey Puzzle and I NTERMEDIATE Other Poems Ancient Ones: Supp!Jing masts far British ships was an By Myra Cohn Livingston The World of the arduous task.for American colonists-on!J Illustrated by Antonio Frasconi Old-Growth Douglas Fir New England pines would do. M CELDERRY, 1984 By Barbara Bash 0 L DER SIERRA CLUB BOOKS, 1994 The Gift of the Tree From the "rough brown cheeks" I NTERMED I ATE By Alvin Tresselt ofshagbark hickory lo the "lavender This glorious portrait in words and art Illustrated by Henri Sorensen litter" ef the jacaranda, the attributes of situates the Douglas fir in its environment. LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD, 1992 different trees emerge through verse. A !so see the author's books about the Y OUNGER/ I NTERMEDIATE baobab, the banyan, and the saguaro. Jn this eloquent book, the gradual death A Tree Is Nice ofan oak is a source oflife for the thriving plants and animals that surround it. By Janice May Udry The Blossom on the Bough: Illustrated by Marc Simont A Book of Trees H ARPERCOLLINS, 1956

By Anne Ophelia D owden Y OUNGER TICKNOR & FIEWS, 1994 The benefits and pleasures ofbeing near 0 L DER a tree are expressed with irresistible A premier botanical artist shares her concreteness in this classic. knowledge and exquisite drawings oftr ees­ lheir flowers, fruits, and leaves.

15 Riverbank Review

Switch Craft

Changeling stories dare to imagine that the baby in the house is not our own. By Christine Alfano

utumn calls for stories that evoke a shiver of fear. Venturing sap scarce family resources. In an informa­ beyond the usual Halloween fare, readers will find a rich tive essay on changeling legends, D. L. Ashliman cites European court records Afolkloric tradition-tales of mysterious worlds bordering from 1850 to 1900 that show numerous and occasionally impinging on our own. None of these stories are cases of men and women being prose­ more potent and profound than the unsettling tales of changelings. cuted for murdering suspected change­ lings. "Similar incidents were undoubt­ The Random House dictionary de­ ling legends were passed from storyteller edly even more common in earlier fines changeling as "an ugly, stupid, or to storyteller and from town to town centuries," he suggests, "but public strange child superstitiously believed to for a grimly serious purpose. Without opinion, religious attitudes and legal have been left by fairies in place ofa pret­ the benefit ofaccurate scientific and med­ indifference made it unlikely that such ty, charming child." Stories about the ical knowledge, people used these tales cases would be prosecuted." magical and horrifying switching ofbabes to explain the existence of deformed and "Once upon a time"-the comfort­ are elemental-wonderful and chilling retarded children. Shocking as it may ing invitation to fantasy-was not the to read, because they embody aspects be, the stories provided desperately poor way the original changeling tales began. of both our fears and our actual experi­ families with a rationale for ridding them­ Instead, they read like reportage, often ence. What parents haven't imagined, selves of children who would entirely indicating precise dates and locales, as as they stare, utterly exhausted, at the red, in this opening to the Grimms' tale "A contorted face ofa child who's been squal­ Changeling Is Beaten with a Switch": ling for hours, that the creature they hold "TI1e following true story took place in in their arms isn't really their lovable baby the year 1580. Near Breslau there lived at all, but a demonic stand-in? The idea a distinguished nobleman ... " that someone who l.ooks just like our child Sometimes the stories included pre­ might not actually be our d1ild is disqui­ cautionary instructions. Newborns were eting in a way that ghost or witch stories prone to be exchanged if they were left are not. And what child has not consid­ alone, without a candle burning, any­ ered the strange and terrible prospect time before they were christened. Plac­ of strangers stepping in as parents? A ing an iron object like a needle or a dia­ changeling is the dreaded "other" in per pin near the baby, or folding a pair our own form-we lock the door at of the father's breeches over the side of night, but the monster is within. It lives the cradle, warded off thieving trolls. with us, it looks like us, we tuck it in at The water in which a newborn had been night and lay a kiss on its little head. washed should be saved for the protec­ Changeling stories have a subver­ tion it would offer. If you suspected you sive history. Throughout Europe, from had a changeling in your house, common pre-Christian times through the nine­ knowledge would have you attempt teenth century, they served as more than Cover illustration ~y James Bernardin, the far-fetched: boil water in an eggshell literary diversions. The original change- from The Moorchild or brew beer in a walnut shell to sur-

16 prise the changeling and make it laugh. Ifyou couldn't get it to laugh or divulge its age, you might resort to more dras­ one Dark Niqbt tic measures: beat it with a switch; throw BY Hazel Hutchins it into the fire or into a river; or leave it ILLUSTRATED BY outside on a freezing cold night, so that Susan Kathleen Hartung its true mother might rescue the strange child, replacing it with the human babe. (Martin Luther recommended drown­ ing-a changeling surely had no soul.) Today, though we don't subscribe to the superstitions surrounding such tales, the idea of the changeling con­ as can be seen in tinues to resonate, "Simple, lyrical prose conveys the intensity and sometimes spookiness creative retellings of these stories. Most of thunderstorms ... evocative, textured oil pa intings have wonderful modern renditions still embrace the depth ... "-Booklist myth of a fairy or troll world and make "This is a simple, suspenseful story successfuJly told, and youngsters will that fantasy the basis of their stories. immecli ately get caught up injonathan's nighttime adventure .. . Include this Four contemporary tales exemplify the in any storytime... "-Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books best of a transformed folklore. "A wonderful read-aloud selection." -School Librargjournal Eloise McGraw, author of Th e Moorchild (Simon & Schuster, 1996), dedicates her award-winning novel "To all children who have ever felt differ­ ent." Set on the moors of England in the 1500s, her version of the changeling story assumes the perspective of the unwilling changeling. Saaski, a young BY MIKE ARTELL fairy child imprisoned in the body of a ILLUSTRATED BY JIM HARRIS human baby, wants nothing more than to return to her own folk and the mag­ ical world on the moor:

She cared nothing for her jailers, not the young woman who fed her the tasteless gruel and half smoth­ ered her with embraces-not the 0-803 7-25 14-0 I $15.99 I AGES 5 UP man with his fearful, threatening iron. They might live out their * "Lyrical and visually hilarious-the watercolors by Harris are sharp­ edged and humorously detail ed-w ith a fe ast of Cajun words and clumsy human lives or die tomor­ sounds." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) row for all of her. "A wonderful, sly and humorous story told in rhyme and illustrated with McGraw spins a bedazzling tale juxta­ verve ... AJl in all , a treat from start to finish ." -School Librarg j ournal posing the trickery and "glamourie" of the moorfolk with the hardscrabble lives of the common people in Saaski's adopted village. The novel is rich in atmospheric and sensual detail. Saaski's beloved moorland comes alive with both natural and supernatural magic. Her strangely accomplished, fairy-inspired Riverbank Review piping enchants (or enrages) anyone who armies march through town and gut setting. Relentless wisecracking com­ hears the tunes. the local church. Lucy leaves what's left ments keep a story that is rife with seduc­ The heavy scent of roots and cool of her family to work on a farm owned tive sirens and flying attack dogs on an earth is evoked when Saaski sneaks back, by Puritans (wherein a long and tedious almost lighthearted level. Johnny's one thrilling midsummer's eve, to the grace is said before and after each meal). approach to the problems he encoun­ underground world of the folk people. Later she returns home to care for her ill ters is the approach of a modem teen­ Her mission in that fabulous and dan­ father and enters into a short but ager, which lends a disarming and pleas­ gerous place is to find and return the serendipitous marriage. One clue leads ing rowdiness to the kind of fantasy child she realizes her kind human par­ to another until Lucy finally unravels that's usually steeped in seriousness. ents have missed. However, Saaski's im­ the mystery of Sarah's disappearance. Selma Lagerlbf and Jeanette Win­ mense generosity holds no sway against The novel provides an intimate, realis­ ter's picture book 77Je Changeling(Knopf, the villagers' hostile ignorance. The clash tic view of the place and time where 1992) also takes an inventive approach that rises out of the all-too-human fear powerful changeling superstitions took to a traditional story form. A troll moth­ of anyone or anything different brings root. Human behavior, not fairyland er, carrying her awful troll baby in a birch this utterly absorbing tale to a charged fantasy, is the book's potent focus. bark backpack, admires an unattended climax. Fast-forward to the twentieth cen­ human baby and makes a quick switch. Kathleen Hersom's 77Je Haff Child tury and meet the unwitting hero of a In contrast to most changeling tales, (Simon & Schuster, 1989) sets readers thoroughly modern changeling story in there is no interval of doubt fo llowing down in seventeenth-century England, Perry Nodelman's smart and funny 77Je this act: from the beginning, it's obvi­ within the circle of a family with a "dif­ Same Place but Different (Simon & ous to the farm couple whose baby has ferent" child, slow and clumsy Sarah. Schuster, 1995). Johnny Nesbit would been stolen that they have been left with Neighbors cruelly whisper that she is rather be hanging out at the local 7- an inhuman creature. The farmer's wife surely a changeling and would be better Eleven with his hockey-loving buddies declares, "My baby does not have teeth off lost, but readers come to under­ but finds himself drawn into the fright­ like nails-my baby doesn't have hair stand Sarah through the gentle eyes of ening and fantastic world of Strangers like boar bristles!" her older sister Lucy. When Sarah does and Yelpers and Cowalkers when he This certain knowledge causes the disappear, it's assumed she's been re­ happens upon the knowledge that his farmer to attempt to harm the young claimed by the fairies, but Lucy winds baby sister is a changeling. Johnny's troll, thinking it will force the troll through the years and events of her life got to get her back in order to "get his mother to rescue her child and return nourishing the small hope that Sarah family back." Nodelman seamlessly his son. His wife responds in the oppo­ might be alive. Elegant plotting and his­ weaves folkloric elements into a novel site fashion, by protecting the troll child, toric detail enrich the story. Cromwell's with a hip contemporary protagonist and treating it as she would her own: "He's a child, all the same." Winter's vibrant, stylized illustrations express the mir­ roring inherent in the story's structure: we see that the troll mother treats the human baby in the same way that the l

18 Fall 2001

Charlotte Zolotow

For over fifty years, the work ofthis consummate children's book author has shown that the words in a picture book are just as important as the illustrations. By Christine Heppermann

riting in The Horn Book Magazine in 1985, Charlotte Zolotow remarked that a little neighbor girl had recently W shown up at her front door and asked to look through her house. While the girl poked about upstairs, her mother arrived to offer an explanation: "Ever since we read Someday, Andrea's been searching for a new room in our house. Williams, Martha Alexander, William I guess she thinks that because you Pene Du Bois, and Tana Hoban, to name wrote the book she'll find it here." a few. Yet her words, which can capture Zolotow has produced over seventy the essence of a parent-child relation­ picture books for young children in her ship or a stormy summer day in a single, fifty-seven-year career as an author, poetic image, are never overshadowed. and looking at the body of work she How fitting that the only award in Amer­ has created is a bit like discovering a ica to specifically honor picture-book room you've never found before, as text-an award established in 1998 by the young narrator imagines doing in the Cooperative Children's Book Cen­ Someday (Harper 1965, illustrated by ter at the University ofWisconsin, Zolo­ Arnold Lobel). tow's alma mater- bears her name. It is difficult to hear the name Mar­ Throughout her adult life, Zolotow her talent into children's books until garet Wise Brown without thinking of has remained "terribly tuned in to chil­ she went to work as an assistant to leg­ Goodnight Moon, or Maurice Sendak with­ dren," as she told Wintle, and her writ­ endary editor Ursula Nordstrom in the out picturing a dancing Wild Thing. ing reflects this, with its unwaveringly Harper & Row juvenile department in Charlotte Zolotow, although she has childlike observations. More than most 1938. One day she composed a memo penned such classics as William 's Doll grown-ups, she seems to understand the to Nordstrom proposing a book she (1972) and Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Pre­ inadequacy of crayons that have lost thought Margaret Wise Brown should sent (1962), is more apt to be associated their points and the thrill of going out­ do about the goings on in a city park with a certain mood or tone than with side in one's nightgown to watch the over twenty-four hours. Nordstrom re­ any particular title. Or as Justin Wintle sun rise. She realizes what a momentous sponded rather grumpily that she want­ puts it in The Pied Pipers (Paddington, event it can be when a child finally, if ed more detail. When Zolotow gave it 1974), a collection of interviews with fleetingly, feels on equal ground with to her, Nordstrom walked over to Zolo­ children's book authors, "Her success, an older sibling. In other words, she tow's desk and said, "You've just writ­ like her work, has been quiet but sus­ acknowledges important things other ten, and I've just taken, your first chil­ tained." Her texts have been illustrated adults tend to overlook altogether. dren's book." by some of the most prominent artists Having always known she wanted The Park Book, illustrated by H. A. in children's literature-Sendak, Garth to be an author, Zolotow didn't channel Rey, was published in 1944, heralding

19 Riverbank Review

''Why are you going to bed so early?"

.•; .. :: ..t· ··· '" ~ .. ~ :: :~: .:··. •':: ~;;~~ . ;

my mother and father are goin g to say,

lllustration by Arnold lobe/,from Someday

Zolotow's flair for noticing the details editor at Harper & Row (now Harper­ raw and forceful, if not more so. As she that matter to children. Here, as moth­ Collins) developed side by side with her says in the Horn Book article: ers and grandmothers chatter away on career as an author, although she took benches, "a little boy who had pan­ seven years off from editing when her We are all the same, except that cakes for breakfast and a little girl who two children were young. She is credit­ adults have found ways to buffer had bread and jam play together in the ed with discovering young adult novel­ themselves against the full-blown intensity of a child's emotions .... sand pile" while "a little boy who goes ist Paul Zindel, whom she approached Children live more completely than to bed at seven and a little girl who is on the basis of the sensitively por­ we do. For them each experience is allowed to stay up till seven-thirty see­ trayed teenagers in his play The Effect ef isolated in time. They are the true saw up and down." Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon existentialists. The Park Book also expresses Zolo­ Marigolds. Under her own imprint, Char­ tow's preoccupation with the cycles of lotte Zolotow Books, from 1981 to her Thus, a misunderstanding with a friend life, a theme that appears in many sub­ retirement in 1993, she published work becomes an all-consuming crisis for sequent books, including Over and Over by both established names (M. E. Kerr, the distraught narrator of Zolotow's (Harper & Row, 1957, illustrated by Garth Laurence Yep, Karla Kuskin) and soon-to­ The Hating Book (1969), illustrated by Williams) and When the Wind Stops be-renowned newcomers (Paul Fleisch­ Ben Sheeter. An adult in the same situ­ (Abelard-Schuman, 1962, illustrated man, Francesca Lia Block). Asked how ation (in fact, the story grew out of an by Joe Lasker). Zolotow has acknowl­ her roles as author and editor affected argument then fifty-year-old Charlotte edged loving The Secret Garden since one another, Zolotow responded that had with a friend) might try to suppress childhood, and her attunement to the she consciously kept a clear distinction her hurt, but the young girl's painful continuous growth, death, and rebirth between the two: "[As an editor] I have feelings never lie far from the surface. It found in nature manifests itself in her to be careful if I see something isn't isn't her pride that prevents her from writing. Whether she is describing the working: the temptation's very often confronting her friend, but a frighten­ natural rhythm of a day in the park or there to say how it should be done, ing possibility: explaining how ocean waves break on which is death to an author. You've got the sand, then retreat back into the ocean to let him solve his own problems." What if she should say Oh, please, just go away. to form new waves (in When the Wind It might seem as ifthe many gritty, You're ugly and dumb. Stops), Zolotow seems to find comfort emotional young adult novels Zolotow Being with you in pattern, conveying to her readers a has edited over the years are a world was never fun. soothing reassurance that somehow, even apart from the ostensibly gentle pic­ if we can't ever completely compre­ ture-book texts she creates herself. Yet in Adult readers may view Zolotow's hend it, nature knows what it's doing. a sense the feelings she deals with in work as "quiet" because the everyday Zolotow's illustrious career as an her writing for young children are just as trials and tribulations of young chi!-

20 Fall 2001 dren seem relatively trivial, even cute, to that trying to shield them from ugly emo­ four years the boy has been remember­ them. But for the children themselves, tions and situations often makes things ing lots of details about the man who these experiences are pivotal tests of worse. Zolotow recalls clearly how she stayed with him when his parents went their being. felt as a child when her parents gave away out of town, and who hastened to his Critics haven't always warmed to her beloved bull terrier before they room to comfort him, as his mother is Zolotow's books, particularly the ones moved from Boston to New York, but doing now: that address difficult subject matter. In told Charlotte the dog had run away. a 1966 review of If It Weren't for You According to Zolotow's daughter, the He had a long white bathrobe (Harper, 1966, illustrated by Ben Sheeter), author Crescent Dragonwagon, her and he'd look like a sailboat coming in the door. a story about two brothers, New Yorker mother wondered constantly why the He'd lean over writer Janet Malcolm commented that dog had left and worried that he was and pick me up. "its purpose seems to be to incite fratri­ hungry and lost. His beard scratched cide." The book's text is a laundry list of Something similar happens to a six­ and then he'd smile things an older brother would be able to year-old boy in Zolotow's My Grandson and hug me. do if only his younger brother didn't Lew (1974), illustrated by William Pene exist: "If it weren't for you, I could Du Bois, a title Ursula Nordstrom Now that the boy knows his grand­ have a room of my own, I could carve couldn't help referring to as Charlotte's father isn't coming back, he and his the pumpkin the way I want-frown­ "death manuscript." As in many of mother can help each other, since, as ing, and I could cry without anyone Zolotow's books, the truth is relayed the mother explains: knowing and play in the tub as long as by an adult in a manner that provides I wanted each night." In the end, how­ reassurance and an affirmation oflife's we will remember him together ever, the older brother realizes that continuity. The story opens with a child and neither of us will be so lonely without his younger brother he would awakening in the middle of the night as we would be "have to be alone with the grown-ups" and calling out to his mother to tell her if we had to remember him -an even less attractive alternative. he misses his grandfather. The mother alone. While Malcolm deems If It Weren'tfor is caught off guard by this statement: You a "dubious approach to the prob­ the boy was only two when his grand­ Another mother and son have a lem of sibling rivalry," Zolotow might father died, and she had assumed he nighttime conversation in Zolotow's counter that children deserve honesty, didn't remember him. But for the past W7Jen the Wind Stops. The boy wants to

when they tum colorand falll' "Into the ground to become. part of new trees

~with new leaves-:

Illustration by Stefano Vitale,from When the Wind Stops

21 Riverbank Review

know why the day has to end. His * uA treasure chest mother replies: "Nothing ends." of history come to life, "Nothing?" the little boy asked. this is an inspired collection. Readers could easily _ _,,, ...... ,...... -- -=-­ "Nothing," his mother said. "It get lost in it by simply dipping into one com­ begins in another place or in a pelling story after another ... Because the book is different way." packed with historical documents, evocatively illustrated ... and full of eyewitness quotations, Zolotow's texts themselves have it should prove valuable to young historians and researchers." -Starred, School Library joumal had many new beginnings, as publish­ ers reissue them in new editions with * "More than 60 young people of all races and new illustrations. (When the Wind Stops religions are profiled . .. Teachers will find has had three editions, the most recent numerous ways to use each profile, but children will like it, too. They'll flip through the pages published by HarperCollins in 1995 and find themselves touched by the material in with artwork by Stefano Vitale.) While many ways." -Starred, Booklist artwork from past decades may seem "Shows young readers how other young people old-fashioned today, the emotions in have shaped American history in large and small Zolotow's picture books do not. For ways .. . Reminds us all that we are never too instance, brothers and sisters still fight, young to make a difference." -Marian Wright and sometimes they even reveal how Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund much they care for each other, as in Zolotow's Do You Know What I'll Do?, first published in 1958. This playful dec­ laration of a sister's love for her younger brother, originally illustrated by Garth Williams, was recently reissued with a slightly revised text and vibrant col­ lage illustrations by African American artist Javaka Steptoe. "Do you know what I'll do when the wind blows?" is one in a series of questions the sister poses to her brother, and her answer­ "I'll put it in a bottle and let it loose when the house is hot"-reveals her inclination to perform little surprises that will make her sibling happy. The wind provides an apt symbol for Charlotte Zolotow's legacy because, as the little boy in When the Wind Stops finally realizes, "it really does go on and on." Just as the wind blows from one part of the world to another, her books pass from one generation of children to the next, offering comfort and stirring things up a bit.-=-

Photographs and archival images • Bibliography • Index Christine Heppermann is a contributing editor Teacher's guide ava ilable• Visit www.weweretheretoo.com lo thr Riverbank Review, and also writes the $26.00 I 0-374-38252-2 I Ages 10 up I Melanie Kroupa Books "RMder al Large" colunmfor The Horn Book FARRAR• STRAUS• GIROUX Magazine.

22 Fall 2001

In the Ring

Young men grapple with psychological challenges as they spar against physical opponents in three novels about boxing. By Mary Lou Burket

oxing is a crucible in young men's lives. This broad idea noisy crowd. With its rapid-fire dia­ unites three deeply optimistic novels, The Contender by Robert logue and ardent expression of hope for Alfred's future, The Contender con­ Lipsyte (HarperCollins, B 1967), Shadow Boxer by Chris Lynch tinues to be a stirring novel. (HarperCollins, 1993), and The Boxer by Kathleen Karr (Farrar, Straus Chris Lynch's Shadow Boxer is, most & Giroux, 2000). Whatever the reader may think about a sport in of all, a book about two boys without a father. George, now thirteen, was nine which "two men got nothing against from these feelings, just a place ofoppor­ when his father collapsed from the each other go in and try and beat each tunity and fairness. "There's no place effects of years of fighting. ("Basically, other's head" (an observation made in to hide in a boxing ring," the trainer says Georgie," his mother explains, "your The Contender), the authors ofthese novels to Alfred. "You're all alone up in there dad was punched to death.") Now George aren't concerned with whether is "the man" to younger broth­ boxing is an acceptable thing er Monty. Written from George's to do. They seem more inter­ point of view, the novel comi­ ested in what the sport enables cally exposes his perception of them to say about survival­ his role. He's overbearing but the social, economic, psycho­ he doesn't know it-"I'm in logical, and physical survival _ charge, that's all," he says de­ of young men. fensively to Monty. Published more than thirty Monty emerges as the char­ years ago, The Contender now feels acter whose future is most at risk. like a work set in a different era. Gutsy, verbal, sensitive, percep­ Young Alfred Brooks is coming tive, he's been schooled in his of age in 1960s Harlem, to the father's boxing wisdom, hand­ sound of urgent voices: "He's ed down through George, who got his foot on your throat, you counsels Monty in a makeshift gonna lick his shoe? Come ring: "Take the body, the head march with us, Alfred." Yet Alfred's with another man who wants to hit you will follow," George recites. "Focus, need to find his own way is a universal more times, and harder, than you hit him. pay attention, and the other guy will drive, transcending time. There are rules, and there's a referee to show you where he can be hit; don't Moments after walking into Dona­ make sure you follow them. It's not the drop your hands for any reason; don't telli's Gym, Alfred is told that "A man street. You follow me?" Alfred does. stop moving; and when you throw that must have some fear. .. and learn to Contending is about much more hand, throw it for real." The goal of control it, to make it work for him." than training as a boxer-it's about this instruction, in a larger, rather omi­ Since Alfred is afraid of his own future, striving, and making choices. "It's the nous sense, is for Monty to learn to this is excellent advice. He also fears climbing that makes the man," Dona­ "take care of himself" as he becomes a and grieves for his friend James, who is telli likes to say. man. He's expected to accept these in jail for robbing the store where Alfred "People will try to drag you down," lessons as a form oflove. works. Donatelli doesn't offer safety he warns, but a boxer must ignore the Lynch illuminates the tangled bonds

23 Riverbank Review

of empathy, aggression, admiration, and immigrant class that Johnny repre­ The Cooperative Children's disdain between the brothers. His style, sents-uneducated men, women, and Book Center announces the which resembles the art of boxing­ children-Karr conveys respect for full of feints and jabs and startling both her characters and the sport of JF 1{]) 1tl1Irth Ainn1tllal shifts in tone-makes for an unsettling boxing. Her fight scenes are exciting yet fascinating read. and she spices Johnny's story with the C] RLOTTE Inevitably, Monty makes good use right amount of relevant detail-the of what he knows. "You're not my length of a round, the brand of a watch, Z OLOTOVV father, you know, George," he declares, the signs of brutal "lacing" on a boxer's an assertion that is ultimately tested in fragile skin. LECTURE the ring. Sooner or later, Monty is For Johnny, who finally wins enough bound to stand up to George, and to money to move his dependents away do it in the way they both respect, with from the slums, boxing is a means, not featuring padded fists. an end. For Alfred, George, and Monty, ROB ERT LIPSYTE Life itself is enough of a test for fif­ the sport is all about direction, disci­ teen-year-old Johnny Woods in Kath­ pline, and hope. The absence of fathers "Jock Culture: Writing leen Kan's The Boxer, set in New York has enormous impact in these novels, and Fighting" City's Lower East Side in the middle offset by the presence of fatherly fig­ 1880s.Johnny shares a tenement apart­ ures, men who give the boxers help. Wednesday, October 3, 2001 ment with his mother and a flock of (Even George, who is too young to be 7:30 p.m. younger siblings. Desperate for more a surrogate dad, induces his brother to Wisconsin Union Theater money, Johnny volunteers to fight an grow.) 800 Langdon Street exhibition bout at Brodie's, a saloon Nurturing is not a word one readily Madison, Wisconsin where boxers share a pit with rats. associates with boxing, yet nurturing is Moments after the fight begins, Johnny at the heart ofthese revealing books about is arrested in a raid and sent for six months imperiled, sympathetic young men. to the Tombs, a notorious prison. Alfred is adrift, Monty is gullible, John­ There Johnny meets his savior, aging ny is trapped. It takes an older male to middleweight Michael O'Shaunnessey train and, sometimes, to provide for -a.k.a. "Perfessor Mike"-who singles them, to lead them into the ring. Johnny out as a contender. O'Shaun­ Training ends in fighting, and fight­ nessey bribes the guards and turns his ing is destructive-just one of the many cell into a training room for Johnny, to ironies in boxing. Consider that beneath prepare him for the day when they the fighter's rage is self-control, and Robert Lipsyte's novels include both get out. "Money ain't no good if that before the screaming public is a The Contender, The Brave, The you can't spend it," O'Shaunnessey solitary man. Perhaps the greatest irony Chief, and One Fat Summer. He is the recipient of the 2001 says. "You throw a little of it around, of all is that the boxer must endure Margaret A. Edwards Award by and by it comes back to you." repeated injury to win. honoring lifetime contribution in A generous, cheerful, resourceful man, Yet if boxing seems uniquely fatal­ writing for young adults. O'Shaunnessey has a progressive view istic, in these novels it supports the of boxing, which, in 1885, is moving working out of universal human needs Established in 1998, this lecture was named to honor Charlotte toward official rules. Referees are com­ -for purpose in life, for personal Zolotow, distinguished children's ing into use, along with boxing gloves strength, for economic freedom. Box­ book editor and author of more and bells for ending rounds. O'Shaun­ ing makes these books dramatic, but than sixty-five picture books. nessey understands the need for strate­ the authors, through their insight and gy. "Boxing should be scientific," he says their craft, make them resonate with For f urther information about CCBC or this lecture, contact to Johnny. "It also ought to be graceful, everyday desires. -=- K athleen T Horning at something pleasurable to watch." (608) 263-3930. Writing in a brisk, lively style that Mary Lou Burket was drawn to boxing through mixes action with compassion for the her love ofm ovies.

24 Fall 2001

Imagination and Risk

Books should expand a child's world, not shrink it. By Emily Arnold McCully

don't write books with an audience of children in mind. I don't know many children, and it would be folly to try to ! anticipate what they want to read. I can only delve into subjects that matter to me and hope that others will be interested as well.

Yet, in the back of my mind, I hope very well, and one of the bear children that my books will build an appetite­ becomes wildly jealous. She fantasizes that down the road there will be more that she herself was adopted; ifshe could adult readers like me. only find her real parents, surely they But the reading culture that nurtured would love her more. When her moth­ and shaped my sensibility has been chang­ er and father prove that they love her ing. Two novelists of my acquaintance with all their hearts, she happily aban­ have remarked on it. Paula Fox's fiction dons the fantasy. As a child I entertained Emily Arnold McCully is the centers on the lives ofcomplex, demand­ the hopeful possibility that I had better ing, and fascinating characters. An influ­ parents somewhere, and many of my author and illustrator ofmany ential critic once dismissed them as too friends have told me that they did too. award-winning books for young distasteful to have dinner with. Rosellen It seems to me to be a common and readers, including Mirette on Brown has suffered similarly infelicitous elemental story. But the book generat­ the High Wire, which won the readings of her novels. She attempts in ed bitter, angry protests. I was accused CaldecottMedalin 1993. Many her stories to touch on such matters as, of portraying adoption in a negative ofher picture books feature strong in her words, "the primordial relation­ light. People said they would sooner female characters; others offer ship between mothers and daughters burn my book than show it to their young readers a slice ofhistorical and .. . where responsibility and blame adopted children. lie for the satisfactions of a life." Some Blinded by a particular interest they fiction brought vividly to life with readers have told her they are disap­ hoped my book might serve, these read­ beautiful illustrations. pointed that her characters are too ers couldn't enter into the story, much McCully was the keynote flawed to be role models. less the aesthetic dimensions of the book. speaker at the Ninth Annual Clearly, something has caused peo­ To me, this was a failure of imagination. Hubbs Children's Literature Con­ ple to think literature ought to be use­ I pointed out that a story can often be ference at the University of St. ful or palliative. When these assump­ a springboard for meaningful discussion Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, tions hold sway, books have to start of sensitive subjects, but to no avail. last February. This is an edited passing tests that have nothing to do Imaginative literary appreciation can with literature. portion of the address she gave on be taught, just as art appreciation and This happened to me in a small way music appreciation can be. But it's not that occasion. with a picture book of mine called My something you can force. I worry that Real Family. The story is about a bear children's books are at risk of being family that adopts an orphaned sheep. appreciated only for their utilitarian The parents don't handle the situation value, with classroom usefulness tied

25 Riverbank Review

to subject matter and testability. Inter­ rupting the reading of stories for crude assessments of comprehension or pro­ jects that neglect the text to focus on the reader's feelings snuffs out the excite­ ment ofbeing thoroughly involved in a story. Whereas children's sensibilities once were perceived as being enlarged by the world of a good story, now chil­ dren are often taught to fit the world of a story to their nascent sensibilities­ an absurd process of reduction. For children to develop as individ­ uals they must have a capacity for aes­ thetic enjoyment. It's the only way to ensure independent thought and full engagement with the world. The alter­ native is, unfortunately, easy to imag­ ine: a soulless, numb tapping at the Inter­ net. We are witnessing a mass addiction to being "connected," swimming in disordered sequences of news and chat - on the television, on the computer, on the cell phone-as if to escape the implacable permanence of the printed page, which silently enjoins us to stop Illustration by Emily Arnold McCully,from Mirette on the High Wire and think. Isaac Bashevis Singer once said that tempted to separate it out, to censor it anxious time, our faith in stories has he wrote children's books because they in her telling. faltered. So many factors work against are "the last refuge of storytelling." Good We seem to have forgotten that lit­ the kind of pleasurable, private, omniv­ stories can encompass strangeness and erature can work on people in infinite orous reading that was at the heart of danger. They don't try to mitigate them. ways, and that this lies at the heart ofits my childhood, when the art and power I know a lively two-year-old who asks for enjoyment. There's a danger that as of language were respected, the experi­ my wordless picture book Picnic every young people turn more and more to ence of wonder and the capacity for night before going to sleep. She finds electronic media for entertainment, intellectual adventure alive and well. endless ways to tell the story of the fam­ children's literature will take on the My sister Becky and I learned to read ily driving to a picnic spot, the littlest narrower functions of teaching kids to before we went to school. My mother mouse falling off the truck, the family read and providing information. noticed that I often tried to draw the proceeding gaily onward, unaware of In our culture's frantic search for things I saw around me, and she said, their loss. Fear and com­ values, why do we never "Why don't you practice and keep at it fort are entwined, and hear a pitch for the in­ until you get it right?" From the time I she takes them both in structive power of narra­ was three, experimentation, discour­ stride. But recently when tive, which connects and agement, and perseverance were all part I mailed the book to an makes sense of things, of my routine. earnest new mother she shows cause and effect, My sensibilities were mainly shaped wrote back that she was action and consequence? by reading- including comic strips­ "worried about that What about language­ and by radio. I listened to the radio for mouse." She had identi­ the way it affects the depth hours on end, visualizing what I heard fied the element of fear ofour ideas and our appre­ (though I'd been in the control room in the story and was From Picnic ciation ofbeauty? In this and knew how effects were created)

26 Fall 2001 and drawing the pictures that appeared stories I've written about brave, perse­ it-with desire, discipline, perseverance, in my head. Getting these pictures out vering, adventurous girls are a penance and explicit risk-taking. Creation of both of my imagination and down on paper for my early scorn as well as a celebra­ the story and the pictures for this book is what I spent most of my free child­ tion oflarger possibilities. led me into untried and rather perilous hood hours trying to do, and it's what I In the first of these books, Mirelle territory. It was a high wire act that now do for a living. on the High Wire, a young girl imagines recovered for me the sense of possibili­ Many of the themes in my books her singular promise and then realizes ty that fueled my childhood.-=- spring directly from my childhood. This was a mostly pre-TV era (though my father worked for RCA and brought home a set in time for us to watch the McCarthy hearings). We had great free­ dom to explore and to take risks. We were warned that if we made mistakes there would be consequences, but we learned from mistakes. Becky and I rode our bicycles all over Long Island and when we were in junior high we would take the train into New York City, where I sketched interesting bums on park benches. Such excursions would be un­ thinkable today. Having hours of free time and the liberty to put myself in a little danger were hugely important to my being a creative child. Joyce Carol Oates, not­ ing that most writers are walkers, cred­ its her panicked flights from bullies with giving her empathy for other peo­ ple's suffering. Her running, and much of mine, was solitary. Solitude was probably the greatest "[In] Huck's retelling of this Scottish folktale . . Peggy Ann wishes for gift of my childhood, and it seems to a husband good and kind , and ends up with the Black Bull (actually the literal be at risk today. I could be alone almost enchanted Duke) of Norroway. Lobel"s illustrations have a sturdy, straightforwardness that matches the no-nonsense text. A solid addition as much as I wanted. As a child, I usu­ to comparative folktale and storytelling collections. " - The Bulletin ally played with boys, and I preferred to read about them. Books about boys "Huck's talents are impressively demonstrated in a blithesome retelling of a seemed likely to prepare me for the tale reminiscent of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon. ' The text, fluid world; they encouraged daring and con­ and precise, [is matched by] the full-color illustrations. The total effect is fidence and expertise, whereas girls' sto­ lushly romantic and definitely appealing." - The Horn Book ries were a prescription for staying at '" Huck's effort to find 'traditional tales that show plucky girls' pays off home. In those days, girls weren't expect­ here . . [her] text is powerful and sweet, well-matched by Label's ed to spend time alone, nor were they theatrically imagined pictures. " - Kirkus Reviews given much freedom to act, observe, and fail. It seemed to me that most girls "A superb addition to all folktale collections. " - School Library Journal wanted to gather in bunches, and they Ages 6 up. $15.95 Tr (0-688-16900-7); $15.89 Lb (0-688-16901-5) gave far too much attention to their appearance. Adopting what I consid­ ered a loftier view isolated me. I retreat­ ~Greenwillow Books An Imprint ofHarperCollinsPublishers 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 • www.harperchildrens.com ed even more into my imagination. The

27 revie. ~s

Picture Books what if it took a new direction, for the Intelligent and accomplished in both fun of it? What if, one night, the dish premise and execution, this is an origi­ ~ and spoon didn't return? Their imagi­ nal and imaginative piece of work. nations are off and running. -Krystyna Paray Goddu And the Dish Ran Away Initially, the sleepy cat, cow, and with the Spoon little dog suggest new endings to the by Janet Stevens and Ballerina! rhyme, but finally decide to go off "by Susan Stevens Crummel By Peter Sis the light of the silvery moon ... to bring Illustrated by Janet Stevens GREENWlll.OW back the dish and the spoon." During H ARCOURT 24 pages, Age 3 and up, $14.95 their search they encounter myriad char­ 4 8page s, Ages 5- 8, $17. 00 ISBN Q.688- 17944-4 acters from other nursery ISBN 015-202298-8 rhymes and fairy tales: Little Boy Blue sleeping under Until now, Peter Sis's accessible and In this friendly "fractured" nursery rhyme, a hay-stack; a frustrated spider sitting imaginative picture books for young chil­ Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crum­ on a tuffet (complaining about his lack dren have focused on interests typical­ mel put a zany twist on "Hey Diddle of success in befriending a certain Miss ly associated with boys-fire trucks, ships, Diddle." The book opens with a straight­ M.); a Big Bad Wolf who tries to make dinosaurs. In Ballerina! he has created a forward reading of the rhyme: a meal of the threesome. Often a play treasure for all those girls who would on words provides the excuse for a bit rather jete and plie than run or walk. Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the of action or a wacky character. At one One glance around the bedroom of fiddle, point, they come to a literal "fork in the child in this book is enough to The cow jumped over the moon; the road," wearing sunglasses and a prove that what Sis announces on the The little dog laughed to see such Hawaiian shirt, its tines suggesting first page in large, bold type is true: sport, And the dish ran away with the spiked hair. Finally, Dish and Spoon "Terry loves ballet." Uncomplicated spoon. fall down a beanstalk, in flight from the black-and-white line drawings show Giant, and land by their friends' side. ballet slippers hanging from a bedpost, By the second spread, however, there Dish breaks into many pieces, but a a ballerina figurine on a bookshelf, is trouble. The panicked cat awakens kind Jack of all trades (who is also nim­ posters of leaping costumed dancers the cast: "Everybody up! They didn't ble and quick, and the builder of a well­ on the wall. Yet the room's most strik­ come back!" "They" are the runaway known house) fixes her and all hurry ing feature (and the only one in color so dish and spoon, who are supposed to back to take their places for the next far) is a large, ornately framed mirror, return directly after the reading to pre­ night's reading-which has been altered waiting like a blank canvas for Terry to pare for the following night's perfor­ to avoid future mishap. make her mark on it. mance. The cat's words invite readers The humor in this book, which fea­ When she dons her tights and starts behind the scenes to witness what goes tures clever wordplay and relies on digging into her trunkful of dress-up on when the book is closed. It's a won­ familiarity with a range of nursery clothes, the mirror reveals the graceful derful concept. Does a story have a life rhymes and fairy tales, will appeal to ballerina she envisions herself to be. of its own? For the Stevens sisters, who school-age children, but the book's On one side of a two-page spread we clearly had a lot of fun creating this generous size and lively illustrations see a twirling little girl in an undershirt book, the answer is a decided yes. And will engage even the youngest listeners. and pink tutu; on the other side is an

28 elaborate illustration of the Nutcrack­ er's Sugar Plum Fairy in a similar posi­ tion. Sis sticks with this format through­ out the book, organizing the drama into a wonderful blend of the fanciful and the concrete. Each piece ofTerry's attire-a red leotard, a blue gown, a yel­ low turban-inspires a different mir­ rored scene demonstrating a specific movement (a leap, a dip, a flutter). Sis mentions several ballets by name, in­ cluding Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and, in his usual fashion, he ends with a rewardingly theatrical finale. Terry's "green, blue, violet, red, pink, yellow, and white scarves" transform into a headdress for "the best ballerina of all," each scarfleading-in a fold-out spread -to the bowing ballerina who wore that color earlier on. The audience members (Terry's parents) indicate their appreciation with thunderous applause, and then with something much more valuable than a standing ovation or a Illustration by Pija Lindenbaum,from Bridget and the Gray Wolves bouquet of roses: they reach out to give her a hug. paw. Or a headache." Hold a fat worm? say that the illustrations are rendered -Renie Victor "You shouldn't hold worms-they want realistically. Lindenbaum (creator of to crawl back into the soil." Bridget is a the supremely funny canine character thoughtful girl and, as Lindenbaum Boodil) is a comic illustrator. Her wolves Bridget and the Gray Wolves concedes, "afraid of most things." The are wonderfully goofy, loping, bedrag­ By Pija Lindenbaum day-care group's trip to the woods to gled creatures-we can almost see the Translated by Kjersti Board collect pretty leaves provides the story's fleas jumping from their skinny bodies. R & S BOOKS/FARRAR, STRA US & GI ROUX 32 pages, Ages 4-7, $15.00 turning point: Bridget is left behind, Bridget's nervous-looking curls are held and the situation becomes ominous as back from her face by neatly placed ISBN 91-29-65395-9 the illustrations move from the calm­ barettes. What a pleasant surprise to see What shy and overly cautious child ing yellows and bright, open spaces of this careful little girl playing catch-the­ doesn't long to drop the shroud of cau­ the field to the dark, confusing territo­ pine-cone with the wolves as if it's no tion and move fearlessly about the ry of the woods. Standing alone with big deal. At bedtime she sings them sad world? Pija Lindenbaum indulges this her small bucket of leaves, Bridget is songs ("They love sad things") and fantasy with comic nonchalance in her dwarfed by the trees. We're afraid for demands that they go to the bathroom warm and witty picture book Bridget her, of course, and when we see the before retiring. and the Gray Wolves. If the title sounds a shining yellow eyes and glowing teeth Was that quiet self-assurance within bit dangerous, don't worry-this Brid­ of a pack of wolves, we're prepared for Bridget all along? Our last glimpse of get can handle anything. the worst. What does fearful Bridget her shows a happy little girl who's made We first meet Bridget at her day­ do? Without batting a lash, she engages her way back to the day-care playground care playground, where she alone re­ the wolves in play! and is preparing to leap from the roof of fuses to join in the communal fun. No visual clues appear to hint at the shed-a feat of derring-do that per­ Jump from the roof of a shed? "I might what is real and what is make-believe. fectly matches the charm and energy of fall down, lose my shoes." Pet a little Lindenbaum is daring enough to re­ the book. dog? "He may have a splinter in his spect a child's fantasy. Which is not to -Christine Aifiino

29 Riverbank Review

Five Creatures narrator. But more is going on. Bogac­ ested pupils, she gets scant respect. "Let's By Emily Jenkins ki's clever design makes the charming see what Mavis has found," the man Illustrated by Tomek Bogacki illustrations seem both simple and says, patronizingly. "A little worm, is FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX sophisticated. Curving lines in the pic­ it? Thank you very much, Mavis, for 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $16. 00 tures are nicely accented by the wavy showing us your little worm." ISBN 0-374-32341-0 ribbons of text. Each two-page spread Next, an impatient parson shoos has a large diamond in the middle of it Mavis from his churchyard. "You're not In Five Creatures, Emily Jenkins and (a rug, a table, a bedspread, a patch of to hang around the church," he warns. Tomek Bogacki have created a delightful shade) that unobtrusively draws to­ "People don't like it." But when he humors picture book that is both highly sophis­ gether the individual elements of the her by inspecting her "baby" and saying, ticated and welcoming to young read­ family groupings, visually reinforcing "You know I can't christen a mouse," ers. Based on the principle of the Venn the essence of the narrative: the mem­ he unwittingly reveals that the thing diagram, the graph that uses circles and bers of the household, different in (whatever it may be) has gotten bigger. the intersection of those circles to show their interests, characteristics, and abil­ Mavis gains credibility, and in subse­ shared and unshared characteristics, Five ities, belong to the same close family. quent images, three silent children begin Creatures describes the traits that the -Kathryne Beebe shadowing her footsteps and acting as members of the narrator's household appreciative, though unacknowledged, (three humans and two cats) exhibit. witnesses. Larky Mavis The text and illustrations set a tone of The mysterious entity, which Mavis By Brock Cole warmth and playfulness without slid­ names Heart's Delight, is fed by its pro­ FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX ing into sentimentality. 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $16.00 tector and continues to grow. Because Jenkins and Bogacki involve read­ Mavis keeps Heart's Delight ISBN 0-374-34365-9 bundled ers in the information-gathering at the in a pale purple cloth that affords only heart of the narrative. Readers learn In Larky Mavis, Brock Cole has created glimpses of a stubbled white stump, a that in the house there are "four who an extraordinary and disturbing fairy pink hand, or a ruffle of bluish-white like to eat fish. Three who like to drink tale about a village eccentric who finds feathers, disgusted onlookers speculate milk, one who's allergic, and one who a strange creature in a peanut shell. about "some kind of deformed bird" has it only in coffee." The illustrations Whereas Cole's Buttons (2000) poked or "a calf and a half." Yet Mavis's child provide visual clues to help sort out who fun at a quirky family, this picture book friends cast affectionate glances at the likes what, yet the reader must make does not make light of its character and blanket. When the anxious townsfolk the final leap to identify the person-or her stubborn insistence that she is raising move to take away Heart's Delight (a doc­ animal-the narrator is describing. Fill­ a child. Mavis is an object of scorn in tor wants to "give it some treatments ing in the gaps intentionally left by the her rural community, and her claims of and write an article"), the children's author and illustrator, the young read­ motherhood irritate local authorities. response reflects Mavis's own terror. er enjoys the pleasure of solving a puz­ As rendered in Cole's eddying ink Cole provides a suitably remark­ zle. A running joke, handled with sub­ lines and ethereal watercolor blurs, Mavis able and ambiguous ending to this sin­ tlety, is that occasionally the feline and resembles the flighty red-haired daugh­ gular story. Glowing washes of yellow human members of the household ter of Buttons, but her ungainliness is and pink watercolor surround Mavis, share the same characteristics: There not an endearing eccentricity. Her un­ and the blanket's contents grow per­ are "five who love birds ... but not all in kempt curls and threadbare clothing ceptibly. "Mavis hugged Heart's Delight the same way." suggest homelessness or insanity. She close ... and all the others fell back, as Bogacki's charming, almost tactile wears heavy wooden clogs on her pigeon­ startled as if someone had rung the illustrations provide another pleasure. toed feet, and her patched skirt billows. church bells in their ears." The mon­ His rough strokes and muted tones As she ambles down a dusty road, strous child emerges as an angelic soften and humanize the geometric "mooning about, mooning about," she winged being who lifts Mavis over her shapes in his compositions. Dear, large­ gazes idly over her shoulder and twists persecutors' heads. Without directly faced cats seem alert to all that tran­ herself off-kilter; her overbite and wide invoking any religious faith, Cole places spires (when they're not asleep). The eyes suggest bewilderment. When she his marginal character in a state of grace illustrations have an innocence that earnestly displays her discovery to an and implicitly questions the villagers' complements the voice of the child uppity schoolmaster and his uninter- judgment and behavior. This startling

30 Fall 2001 and provocative story will invite re­ wishes to spend his days. It's the highly By story's end, as Max's interests reading, discussion, and individual inter­ comic father wolf, overly anxious about shift from arranging flowers to manu­ pretation. his boy's odd proclivities, who provides facturing perfume, we get the definite -Nathalie op de Beeck the story's eye-rolling laughs. feeling that he'll prevail. And unless Three times, Papa wolf tries mightily Papa wolf intends to consume every to convince Max of his rightful career as object in the household, we know that Max, the Stubborn Little Wolf fearless hunter but is foiled each time. he has got to loosen up. If he thought By Marie-Odile Judes "Tomorrow," he declares, "we will go about it, he'd realize that his stubborn Illustrated by Martine Bourre hunting for rabbits and young boars. little wolf proudly joins Chester the Translated by Joan Robbins And if I don't manage to make you a mouse and Ferdinand the bull as mem­ H ARPERCOLLI NS 32 pages, Ages 4- 8, $ J4 . 95 hunter, my son, I'll eat my hat, I will!" orable picture-book characters who are ISBN 0-06-0294 17-5 Max sticks to his flower-lovin' guns, and quite content to be different, thank through the course of the story Papa you very much. We all know "little wolves" like Max­ wolf winds up consuming progressively -Christine Alfano kids who reject certain gender-specific less palatable items: hat, pillow, dishes. role expectations: the boy who insists When will he learn his lesson? Pearl on playing dress-up for fun, and chooses Martine Bourre's bright and satu­ By Debby Atwell only the frilliest outfits; the girl who rated colors provide warm backdrops for H OUGHTON M IFFLIN would rather die than put on the same her boldly rendered wolf family. Flam­ 32 pages, Age 4- 8, $16. 00 getup. boyant brushstrokes conjure the bris­ ISBN 0-395-8841 6-0 Max, the Stubborn little Wo!fis about tles of their fur, while smudged shadow a wolf pup "like that," one who has no and varying textures lend liveliness to In River, Debby Atwell charted the pas­ interest in hunting, as his father insists every page. Humorous visual details sage of time by observing humans' all boy wolves should, but would rather like Max's fluffy stuffed lamb and the impact on the natural environment. In be a florist. Throughout this father and copy of Red Riding Hood lying on his Pearl, her subject is the sweep of Amer­ son's lighthearted tug-of-war, Max comes nightstand further the sense of fun, ican history as seen through the eyes of across as a strong and self-confident lit­ while Papa's polka-dotted pajamas en­ a fictional observer/participant. Pearl is tle wolf, quite certain about how he courage us not to take him too seriously. a centenarian who calmly recounts her own life story, which happens to inter­ sect with major political events. This intimate approach, accentuated by col­ orful folk art paintings, blends a family tree with the stuff of textbooks. In each page spread, a block of text and an iconic line drawing are set on the left-hand side, a large tableau on the right. Strong lines stabilize the rectangular para­ graphs and pictures, encouraging slow study. As time travel goes, the journey in Pearl is smooth and sedate. Pearl opens the narrative by placing herself within a continuum. "My grand­ father told me that when he was just a small boy, he rode in a big parade with the first president of the United States," she says, using her ancestor to link the storytelling moment to 1789, the year of Washington's inauguration. In the painting that accompanies this recol­ Illustration by Debby Atwell.from Pearl lection, George Washington holds a

31 Riverbank Review

-----

-

fllustration by David Wiesner,from The Three Pigs

small boy to his hip and rides a pranc­ Instead, the book ends with a time line The Three Pigs ing white horse. Throngs of people that includes Pearl's birth year (1862), Written and Illustrated by wave flags and cheer. Pearl's origins her honeymoon visit to the brand-new David Wiesner CLARION correspond to the birth of the nation. Statue of Liberty (1885), and her move 4 0 pages, Age 5 and up, $16. 00 Pearl describes herself as the youngest to Alabama, where she hears the Rev­ ISBN 0-6 18-00701-6 of nine children. Because her "father erend Martin Luther KingJr. speak on and brothers had all gone off to fight in civil rights (1955). the Civil War to free the slaves," her While she alludes to famous figures This new telling of a tale we all know is mother and sisters "got up before sun­ and events, Pearl expresses few opin­ fresh and surprising all the way through. rise and started the fire, heated the ket­ ions. She shrugs off flapper attire with­ On the jacket flap we learn that, "ever tle, fed the chickens, milked the cows, out mentioning Prohibition ("Fancy since the pigs took to the air at the end and dressed me." A miniature drawing clothes are just a way of celebrating ofTuesday," David Wiesner has wanted of battlefield violence is offset by the good times") and has little to say about to give them "a book of their own." In main illustration, which depicts a sunny the Depression ("Most all of the men this brilliant adaptation of "The Three day on a traditional farm (missing its lost their jobs because the stock market Little Pigs," Wiesner serves up a visual male workers). Observant readers will crashed. I never understood what that and intellectual feast. notice that, decades later, a painting of meant"). She does meditate on World The book begins conventionally the yellow farmhouse and red barn War II, both in words and in a solemn enough, with "once upon a time," the hang in Pearl's living room. picture of a graveside ceremony among wily wolf keeping an eye on the first Throughout, the reader is able to soldiers and civilians. pig, who is busily engaged in building make historical connections between Atwell casts her narrator as an Amer­ his house of straw. The illustration has different events in the narrative. As a ican Everywoman, observing events a traditional feel, with a flat, muted young girl, Pearl is acquainted with while leading an ordinary life. She fit­ palette and straightforward renditions women's suffrage activists ("A lady tingly closes the story with Pearl meet­ of the characters. Then, on the second named Susan B. Anthony talked to my ing a great-granddaughter, her name­ spread, the full-page illustration frag­ mother"), and years later, she and her sake. "I could see that little Pearl had ments into separate panels. When the daughters vote. In the 1930s, she pays a my father's sky-blue eyes," Pearl says, wolf huffs and puffs, he blows the first dime to go to the movies, and in the and this moment of recognition con­ little pig out of his panel, and out of 1950s, she watches TV: "Moving-pic­ nects the generations. Balancing family the "official" story of"The Three Little ture shows in your own home!" Per­ and national history, this inventive Pigs." haps because numerical markers might book calls attention to both individual When the next panel tells us that diminish the illusion of oral history, growth and shared memories. the wolf "ate the pig up," we can plain­ dates aren't specified in Pearl 's account. -Nathalie op de Beeck ly see that the pig is alive and well. In

32 Ifs a Baby Extravaganza!

* "This delightful homage to the youngest among us should be a hit at toddler storytimes, and the book will be great for individual sharing .... Everywh ere Babies should be in every preschool collection." -School Library Journal (starred review)

* "Meyers and Frazee play a happy, well-tuned concerto ... .The text and pictures make beautiful music together." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Everywhere Babies * "A charming paean." Susan Meyers - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Illustrated by Marla Frazee 0- 15-202226-0 • $16.00 • 32 pages • Ages 2 to 5 * "Warm, funny, generous, this is a book that belongs in every library, and every lap. " -The Horn Book (starred review)

"Cheerful .... Charming." -Booklist

"This jubilant picture book .. . makes clear that each time a child takes a first step, it is something to celebrate." -Riverbank Review

Available at your local bookstore or by "A look-and-point laps it hit." -The Bulletin calling toll-free 1-800-543-1918.

~Harcourt 525 B Screec, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101 15 East 26ch Street, New York, New York 10010 Riverbank Review fact, he seems more alive than ever: he ters have taken charge of the story's res­ Under New York, is portrayed more realistically, now that olution. The door to the house of bricks below offices and theaters and stores, he has been liberated from his role in opens and the dragon's head pops out, there are miles of pipes and wires ... the traditional tale. He sneaks behind scattering letters from the text and giv­ carrying light and heat to the city the second pig's panel, and when the ing the wolf a jolly good scare. The above. wolf blows down the house of sticks, three pigs, the cat, and the dragon all the second pig joins the first. Together, live happily ever after. The wolf can be Rayevsky splits each spread horizontal­ they liberate the third pig, and the seen through the window, sulking but ly (with a ribbon of black-and-gold con­ three of them run around outside the unharmed. struction tape, a copper pipe, a set of yel­ visual boundaries of the story while the The Three Pigs is a great achievement. low marquee lights). The upper part of wolf is trapped inside, pushing against Its conception is bold and its use of every spread provides a street or river the sides of the frame. space is dynamic and playful. This book view of Manhattan, while the lower The pigs play with the story panels, can be appreciated on many levels, and portion shows a dimly lit subterranean fashioning the one that holds the wolf most of all, it's lots of fun. scene. into a paper plane, which they ride to -Antonia Gray Native New Yorkers and visitors alike visit other story-worlds. The "cat with will recognize famous landmarks, traced the fiddle" from "Hey Diddle Diddle" in broad strokes of inky black and tint­ Under New York joins them, as does a mighty dragon ed with layer upon layer of semitrans­ By Linda Oatman High who is about to be slain by a prince. parent color. The very first spread takes Illustrated by Robert Rayevsky The three pigs, the cat, and the dragon an aerial look at cars, bikes, and horse­ H OLIDAY H OUSE drawn carriages around Columbus Cir­ then enter a space where illustrations 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $16. 95 cle, all atop a foundation of charcoal­ from different stories hang suspended ISBN 0-8234-1551-1 in midair, stretching into infinity. One and-blue paving stones: of these illustrations is the third pig's In this abstract expedition through con­ house of bricks. crete and steel, Linda Oatman High Under New York, The animals decide that they want (Maizie) and Robert Rayevsky (Squash below skyscrapers and moonshine and sky, to go home, so they reassemble the It!) peek under the slate-gray skin of the there are stones and sand, clay, panels of the original story, and the Big Apple. High plumbs the hidden and lots of big rocks wolf rejoins the action, threatening to depths with unrhymed verses, each made by glaciers, huff and puff But this time the charac- beginning with the title words: millions of years ago.

Subsequent images show how lives and eras iiterally overlap. Beneath ice skaters in the midnight-blue twilight outside Rockefeller Center, pedestrians jostle in a sepia-brown walkway lined with shops, "a world of its own, I an under­ ground city below the city." Manhole covers conceal workers in hardhats "making new tunnels for water," and a rendering of Madison Square Garden accompanies a look at circus elephants, so large they must approach the venue on foot, via the Lincoln Tunnel. Rayevsky paints Manhattan in the loose, active way that Ludwig Bemel­ mans painted Paris, with the addition of collage elements like photos, street signs, and public-works icons. If his !/!us/ration /~y Robert Ra_yevsk)i,.fi-0111 Under New York images are not always geographically

34 A Butterfly Tour de Force ...

A New Yorh Times Booh Review Children's Bestseller

A Publishers Weehly Children's Bestseller

* "Ehlen soars with a masteeful blend of an and natural science." -Publishers Weehly (starred review)

Waiting for Wings * "Glorious .... Original and vivid." Lois Ehlert -Boohlist (s tarred review) 0-15-202608-8 • $17.00 • 38 pages • Ages 3 to 7 * "Riveting." -Kirhus Reviews (starred re\icw)

"Stellar." -School Library journal

"Visually splendid." -Parenting

Available at your local bookstore or by calling toll-free 1-800-543-1918.

~Harcourt 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101 15 East 26th Street, New York, ew York 10010 Riverbank Review precise, they do convey a busy place looking out the window, hugging) and I Won't I Yes I Will") and display a vari­ where much happens simultaneously. in technique. You can see exactly how the ety of narrative and poetic strategies. Commuters shuttle between China­ artist's pencils have marked the clearly Sometimes Williams's poems are in­ town markets and the Canal Street sub­ defined strokes and made roughly blend­ timate ("That question never stopped way station. Dog walkers stroll in the ed combinations of colors. These pic­ buzzing I right by her ear"), and at other daylight, above diners and jazz musi­ tures do not mime or co-opt simplicity; times they offer staccato dialogue, cians in a dim but lively cellar. Like­ they embody and celebrate it. dreamy reverie, or matter-of-fact-but wise, High's evocative language sug­ Like the characters in A Chair for telling-observation: gests general, citywide traffic rather than My Mother, Scooter, and other books by Essie had fixed cocoa and toast any specific time or place. Throughout Williams, Amber and Essie are every­ and though there was nothing the book, the author gives a sense of day heroes. Their world is a place where good to spread constant humming motion on several parents work long hours at low-paying on the toast levels; in a brief afterword, "(Some) Notes jobs, and families live in small apart­ Essie cut it into triangles from Underground," she mentions ments in city neighborhoods. In Amber to dip in their cocoa. two famous basement haunts: the Vil­ Was Brave, Essie Wtzs Smart, the depic­ lage Vanguard club and Grand Central tion of poverty is especially pointed: The poems lead up to the moment Terminal's well-known Oyster Bar. of Daddy's homecoming, a dramatic High and Rayevsky call attention Not even half a glass moment expressed in pictures rather than was in the milk container to what's underfoot in New York and, words. While most of the poems could And the last banana by extension, any modern city. Mildly not stand alone outside this collection, was brown claustrophobic (like the urban under­ they are no less poems for that fact. It Brown and leaky. ground it investigates) Under New York would be nice to see copies of this book invites young readers to contemplate The absence of the girls' father is a in both the poetry and the fiction sec­ how stairs, sewers, and bridges connect central thread in the narrative. After three tions of libraries and bookstores. the layers of an intricate manm<>.de poems introducing the sisters comes a The work of a children's-book mas­ landscape. series of six emotional poems devoted ter making use of the simplest materials -Nathalie op de Beeck to the problem-Daddy is in prison for and techniques, this unconventional forging a check-and the strain it puts book is a deeply felt study of the lives of on the girls. Like the rest of the poems two sisters, more fragmentary than com­ in the volume, these have affecting titles prehensive, but never tentative. Any ("The QJestion That Always Made Amber reader ofVera B. Williams will find this Cry," "Conversation under the Bed," "No book unmistakably and irresistibly hers. Once again, given the freedom to explore Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart her strongest impulses as an artist, Will­ By Vera B. Williams iams turns to look directly into the eyes GR! 1 Nw1 11ow / H ARPERC0111Ns of children. 72 pages, Age 7 and up, $1 5.95 - Susan Marie Swanson ISBN 0-06-029460-4

Amber, the little sister with brown braids, Angel on the Square and Essie, the big sister with yellow hair, By Gloria Whelan are the subjects offour colored-pencil por­ HARPERCO LUNS traits that begin this original book, and 304pages,Age lOandup, $15.95 of the sequence of twenty-eight poems ISBN 0-06-029030·7 illustrated with black-and-white pencil drawings that form its heart. The volume On the eve of World War I, twelve-year­ concludes with a fifteen-page "album" old Katya steps into the role ofpodruga of pictures depicting incidents and sit­ or special friend to Anastasia ("Stana"), uations from the text. Williams's artwork daughter ofTsar Nicholas II. Unsure of is remarkably straightforward, both in l!!ustration ~) ' Vern 8. Williams, from how she should act around the royal subject matter (bouncing on the bed, Amber Was Brave, Ess ie Was Smart family, Katya is at first uneasy about

36 What Would Happen If the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon-and Never Returned?

.. ' \ I J

* "Brimming wi.th energetic line and movement." -Booklist (starred review)

* "Serve[s] up a concoction of visual treats .. .. Kids will gobble this up." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon * "The creators of Cook-a-Doodle-Dao! spin off a Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel freewheeling yam from a familiar nursery rhyme .... Illustrated by Janet Stevens Required reading for all Jacks and Jills." 0-15-202298-8 • 17.00 • 48 pages • Ages 5 to 8 -Kirkus Reviews (scarred review) \ ' "A rollicking picaresque adventure." -School Library journal

Available at your local bookstore or by calling toll-free 1-800-543-1918.

~Harcourt 525 B Sueet, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101 15 East 26ch Street, New York. ew York 10010 R iverbank Review her new situation, but Stana's friendship darkness of the past can't completely they work hard and love one another. and the tsar's fatherly presence soon make overshadow the characters' hopes for a Francisco encounters prejudice, but he her feel at home. As the years pass and brighter future. also engenders respect. He comes up Russia is plunged into the upheaval of -jenny Sawyer against obstacles and then finds a way revolution, Katya witnesses firsthand around them. His hope and his love the political machinations that lead to for his family shine through his words Breaking Through the destruction of a family she has grown as he tells his own lived version of the By Francisco Jimenez to love. great American dream. H OUGHTON MIHUN Gloria Whelan brings to life the 208 pages, Age 12 and up, $15.00 -Lee Galda key players in this tumultuous period ISBN 0-618-01173-0 of Russian history, from the infamous Every Time a Rainbow Dies Rasputin to the radical intellectuals Breaking Through is the sequel to Fran­ By Rita Williams-Garcia who first dared to challenge the tsar. cisco Jimenez's acclaimed The Circuit. H ARPFRCOLLINS The book's grimmer moments- disil­ This second novel based on Jimenez's 166 pages, Age 14 and up, $15.95 the battlefield, the royal own life experience begins in Francis­ lusionment on ISBN 0-688-16245-2 family's desperate attempts to main­ co's fourteenth year with his deporta­ tain a sense of normalcy back home­ tion from Santa Maria, California, to One of the most powerful new voices in are balanced by warm scenes in the tsar's Mexico. His ten years of worry are over young adult literature, Rita Williams­ intimate family circle. Whelan explores -it is actually happening. He is dis­ Garcia explores loss and love, identity, the characters' relationships with insight traught; he'll have to leave school, and and self-determination in Every Time a and tenderness, allowing Nicholas and what will happen to his family? They Rainbow Dies. This multilayered novel is his family to emerge as more than just journey together to Mexico, where full of visual images-beautiful and historical figures. they wait, hoping to be granted immi­ horrible-as well as deft characteriza­ One of the novel's strengths is its grant visas. When they are, the family tion and passionate writing. ability to spark in the reader the same rejoices, but they separate anyway, The novel begins on a rooftop in fire of conflicting emotions Katya is with Francisco and his older brother Brooklyn where sixteen-year-old Thu­ experiencing. Katya's na"ivete initially returning to Santa Maria and the rest of lani is sitting with his pigeons when he allows her to believe that her beloved the family going to Guadalajara to stay hears a scream from the streets below. tsar is sincerely interested in helping with relatives while the father finds a At the second scream, he looks down the Russian people-peasants and noble­ healer to relieve the pain in his back. and sees two men raping and beating a men alike. Her loyalties are ca lled into When the family reunites in California young woman. He rushes to the street, question as she comes to understand in the spring, Francisco rejoices. finds the victim, and covers her with the ins and outs of politics and the In Jimenez's description ofhis fam­ his T-shirt. Later, when he finds the weight and complexity of choices that ily life, work, and school experience, rainbow-colored skirt that was tom from will influence the fate of an entire we see a boy who is determined to be her, he takes it home and hangs it on country. Katya's older cousin Misha, good and do well. We witness his his wall. The skirt becomes a metaphor whom she initially writes off as a hard­ respect for his father even as he chafes for the mysterious young woman he headed and volatile radical, becomes under his demand for unquestioning begins to love. the inspiration for her reevaluation of obedience. We observe the closeness Loving is not easy for Thulani. His societal constructs she once accepted between Francisco and his brothers, beloved mother left Brooklyn three without question. and the comfort provided by his moth­ years earlier to return to Jamaica for Katya's coming of age mirrors Rus­ er's love. We watch a young man who what Thulani thought was a brief visit sia's own transformation. By the end of struggles to do homework after work­ to his father. She was, in fact, going the novel, Katya has matured into an ing all day to feed his family, a young home to die. Trying to spare Thulani intelligent, openminded, and hard-work­ man whose eventual academic achieve­ pain, she denied him the opportunity ing young woman. Both her fate, and ment takes him away from his family to say good-bye. Now Thulani lives in her country's, remain uncertain, but the but not, we trust, from their love. her house with his older brother, Tru­ book's tone remains optimistic. As we What is truly remarkable about this man, and Truman's wife, who is preg­ leave Katya and Russia at the end of the book is the joy that springs from its nant with their first child. novel, one thing is for sure: even the pages. The family is extremely poor, but Truman, more pragmatic than lov-

38 ,. Toadally Hilarious Reptile and Amphibian Poems

* "A first choice for the poetry shelves ... this collection is toadally tenijlc." -Kirkus Reviews (starred re\'iew)

* "Lots of jun for a wide age range-including adults." lizards, frogs , and polliwogs -Booklist (starred review) Douglas Florian 0-15-202591-X • $16 00 • 48 pages • Ages 5 to 10 * "Florian regales his readers with unexpected rhymes . .. . [and] finds mischievous reptile lore that will make young readers laugh. " -Publishers Weekly (starred re\'iew)

"Full of wordplay and wit." -The Horn Book

"Readers will relish this addition to Florian's series of unnatural history." -The Bulletin.

Available at your local bookstore or by calling toll-free 1-800-543-1918.

~Harcourt 525 B Stree t, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101 15 East 26th Street. New York, New York I 0010 Riverbank Review

ing, pushes Thulani to grow up, to get from Aunt Euterpe arrives. It's an invi­ the outset, emerge as memorable, three­ past his mother's death, to be responsi­ tation for thirteen-year-old Rosie, her dimensional characters by the end of the ble. Thulani retreats to the roof and his older sister, Lottie, and their younger novel. Young Buster Beckett serves main­ birds until the night he rescues Ysa, who, brother, Buster, to travel to Chicago to ly as a source of comic relief-with his for her own reasons, retreats from him attend the World's Columbian Exposi­ constantly changing menagerie of pock­ as he attempts to get to know her. Drawn tion. But the trip to Chicago yields et pets, he is the quintessential seven­ out of himself by the violent incident more than just the excitement of the year-old boy: curious, rambunctious, and he has witnessed, Thulani pursues Ysa fair. There's the surprise appearance of dead set against dressing up for anything. gently. As she slowly lets him into her crotchety old Grandpa; there's the One of the most striking aspects of life, Ysa is revealed as a stark contrast to shock of leaving behind rural Illinois Fair Weather is its skillful melding of her new friend. She has plans for her life for a city teeming with people; and fact and fiction. Pictures from the Chica­ and is focused on her goals; Thulani, a then there's the problem of Aunt go Historical Society lend a note of drifter and dreamer, may not even fin­ Euterpe. Still, Rosie and Lottie take it all authenticity to the novel while simulta­ ish high school. Yet they are alike in in stride and enjoy the eclectic array of neously helping to flesh out the sights their longing for family, their fierce fair entertainment, from the blazing that Rosie describes. These include pho­ honesty, and their growing passion. lights of the midway to the elegance of tos of the exposition's Women's Build­ Thulani's pursuit ofYsa, and his in­ tea at the Turkish Garden. ing and of the infamous singer Lillian creasing irritation at being treated like a The World's Columbian Exposi­ Russell. A note from the author at the child by his brother, push him toward tion is the perfect setting for a novel end of the book offers an explanation of adulthood and independence. He gets about change, progress, and the widen­ what happened "after the fair," from a job, begins experimenting with pho­ ing of horizons. For the country, the politics to products that endured, remind­ tography, and starts to think about the exposition brought to light new ideas ing readers that both for the Becketts and future. The only false note in Thulani's regarding developing technology, con­ for America as a whole, the World's transformation is his short-lived sexual sumerism, and politics. For the Beckett Columbian Exposition was a doorway relationship with a girl he doesn't real­ family the fair is also a catalyst for to the future. ly care for; he seems too sensitive to so change. As Rosie says on the first page -Jenny Sawyer deliberately deceive himself and others. of the book, the day Aunt Euterpe's let­ Williams-Garcia develops the rela­ ter arrived was "the last day of our old The God of Grandma Forever tionship between Thulani and Ysa so lives, and we didn't even know it." For By Margriet Hogeweg compellingly that when they finally Rosie, it's a place where she comes into Translated by Nancy Forest-Flier make love it seems inevitable and right. contact with strong women whose views FRONT STREET Their joining, so unlike the rape that about equality strike a chord deep with­ 112 pages, Age 10 and up, $14. 95 began the novel, is healing for them in her. The exposition enlarges her view ISBN 1-886910-69-3 both. Thulani's return to Jamaica to find of the world: for the first time in her the father he has not seen for thirteen life, she is able to see the possibilities A common issue in the lives of many years is a step forward into a future that beyond the limited acreage of the fam­ families, but one that is rarely dealt might allow him to fulfill his own ily farm. Even Aunt Euterpe changes with in children's literature, rears its promise. Perhaps this future will also be for the better, thanks to the fair, leaving awkward head in The God of Grandma bright with the colors ofYsa's rainbow. behind the solitude of her widow's life Forever, an intriguing novel first pub­ - Lee Galda for the sociability and elegance ofChica­ lished in Sweden. Its unconventional go high society. story is set in motion as a fundamental­ Richard Peck's characters are well ist Christian grandmother comes to live Fair Weather drawn and likable, and include a range with her religiously indifferent son and By Richard Peck of personalities, some comically stereo­ daughter-in-law. While the contrasting DIAi 160 pages, Age JO and up, $16. 99 typed, others more nuanced. Rosie and beliefs of the two generations lurk at the periphery of the story, the novel's ISBN 0-8037-2516-7 Lottie are farm girls through and through - but also serious young women ready focus is the ability of the granddaugh­ It's 1893, and life is moseying along at to explore the new worlds that are ter, Maria, to straddle these disparate a slow but comfortable pace on the opened up for them by the fair. Grand­ philosophies as she forges a relation­ Beckett family farm-until the letter pa and Aunt Euterpe, comic types at ship with her grandmother.

40 Fall 2001

The slightly conspiratorial tone of her Goliath takes on a laughing, red­ ma Forever is a moving novel that shows the narration tells us that we are seeing headed, freckled David. how remarkable and rewarding even things from Maria's distinctive point Maria is openhearted enough to see the most tentative friendship can be. It of view-readers have access to her beyond her grandmother's flaws, and is also a daring one, in its willingness to feelings and experiences, which are the two form a connection that seems openly ponder questions of faith and expressed with a childlike bluntness. likely to influence Maria long after doubt. Bright and unselfconscious, Maria moves Grandma's passing. The God of Grand- -Christine Alfa-no openly and imaginatively through her days; she visits and has conversations with her other grandmother, who "sleeps" under a stone in the nearby cemetery. When her very much alive, ninety-three­ year-old grandma moves into Maria's beloved attic (where she is used to play­ ing pirates with her friend Jacob, and where she retreats periodically to be by herself and think) she is upset but accepts With a companion it. Slowly, Maria begins to build a rick­ to his ety friendship with this sullen, almost • • completely bedridden woman who is awar -wmnmg more apt to scold Maria and crabbily dismiss her ("You're just a silly mon­ The Million key") than to welcome her daily visits. liar Shot The generational chasms that form the story's distinctive geography are real­ istically handled by Margriet Hogeweg. The local minister's visit is nervously, fussily anticipated by Grandma and tolerated with a shrug by Maria's par­ ents. Grandma wants freshly baked cake served; Maria's parents make do with a couple of leftover store-bought cupcakes. When Maria convinces her grandma to come to school as a special guest and the subject of a class report, Tr. Ed. 0-7868-07 64-4 she and her animal-rights-conscious class­ $15.99 ($22.99 CAN) mates are aghast when the old woman Lib. Ed. 0-7868-2612-6 shows up wearing a real mink coat. Sl 6.49 ($23.49 CAN) Grandma's attic bedroom, filled November with the sounds of radio preaching and psalm singing and the rustle of Grand­ The Million Dollar Shot Praise for The Million Dollar Shot: ma turning the thin pages in her Bible, Tr. Ed. 0-7868-0334-7 "Another page-turner ... Gutman's subtle humor, is initially foreign turf to Maria. She is Sl 3.95 ($18.95 CAN) exciting sports action, and excruciating suspense gradually drawn there to hear the Old Lib. Ed. 0-7868-2275-9 make this title an outstanding choice" Testament stories that her grandma $14.49 ($19.49 CAN) -School Librory Journal knows by heart. Cantankerous Grand­ Pbk. Ed. 0-7868-1220-6 "Gutman succeeds in generating plenty of ma is a natural storyteller: her Noah $4.99 ($6.99 CAN) excitement." - Book/isl sends invitations to all the people in his neighborhood to come to a festive ark HYPERION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN open house (no one shows up, ofcourse);

41 Riverbank Review

Hole in the Sky She is looking for the Sipapuni, a holy about both poetry and his own writing By Pete Hautman place beside the Little Colorado River ability. As the year progresses, he finds, SIMON & SCHUSTER that her grandfather described to her. It to his utter amazement, that poetry 192 pages, Age 12 and up, $16.00 is the "hole in the sky" through which can be inspiring, and that his experi­ ISBN 0-689-83118-8 Native tribes originally entered this mentation has enabled him to develop world. Postponing her own journey, his poetic voice. "I stand at the edge of the world," says Bella joins the boys as they return to Jack's writing exercises also help sixteen-year-old Ceej from his home the rim to find Harryette. him come to terms with the loss of his on the rim of the Grand Canyon. He is The narration switches again, this beloved yellow dog, Sky. Sharon Creech indeed living at the edge-of the time to Tim. In his account, Bella slowly allows the story of Sky's life and canyon, of safety, and of the world he exposes herself to the flu in a brave but death to unfold. The story begins oblique­ has known as a child. That world has vain attempt to rescue Ceej's and Tim's ly, as Jack splices the details into a poem already changed profoundly. A pro­ fathers. Harryette is the only one they by William Carlos Williams they've logue explains how the flu began its manage to extract from the Kinkas, studied in class: inexorable destruction of human life in and it is she who narrates their final the year 2028-five billion dead the descent into the canyon and the jour­ So much depends upon first year, nine hundred million the sec­ ney to the Sipapuni. Once they are a blue car ond, seventy million the third. Now, there, Ceej and Bella disappear-per­ splattered with mud after the initial outbreak, haps passing through to a better life in ten years speeding down the road. those who managed to escape the virus the world beyond. Tim and Harryette live in isolated, well-defended settle­ aren't sure what has happened; they As Jack leaves Williams's construc­ ments. Those who were hit by the flu themselves may have passed through tion behind, Sky's real story starts to and survived are all damaged in some as well. The ambiguous ending leaves emerge, and Jack's process of healing way; Ceej's older sister, Harryette, can this as a distinct possibility. begins. no longer hear or speak except through Combining a dramatic setting, a Creech's slim novel is filled with sign language. She and Ceej live with stirring adventure, Hopi mysticism, moments of warmth and humor, and their uncle, a former national park and a gentle love story, Hautman's in this rather minimalist approach to ranger at the canyon. They live alone, novel is sure to appeal to a wide audi­ storytelling, she is able to develop char­ visited only by Ceej's friend Tim and ence of readers. acters and their relationships with one his father, who is a trader. They avoid -lee Galda another to a surprising degree. Miss strangers, both to keep the virus out of Stretch berry, Jack's teacher, is an effec­ their home and to steer clear of Kinkas, tive presence throughout the novel; Love That Dog bands of survivors who attack the her passion for poetry is eventually By Sharon Creech unwary. mirrored by Jack's own enthusiasm. H ARPERCOLLINS The two men set out on a venture, 112 pages, Ages 8- 12, $14.95 And children's book author Walter dam on Dean Myers, in a cameo appearance, with Harryette, to regulate a ISBN 0-06-029287-3 the Colorado River that will destroy seems like flesh and blood with his the canyon if it overflows. When they Jack's comment on the opening page laugh that sounded don't return, the boys correctly assume of this spare novel says it all: that they have been captured by the like it was coming from way down deep Kinkas. The boys attempt to find I don't want to because boys and bubbling up and them, but are themselves discovered don't write poetry. rolling and tumbling by the Kinkas and are forced to retreat Girls do. out into the air. to the safety of the canyon. Unfortu­ nately, dangers lurk even there: Ceej is Thus begins the saga of a boy's Creech even takes time to explore bitten by a rattlesnake. Bella, a Hopi school year, presented in free-verse Jack's relationship with his father, a girl, finds them and uses her tradition­ journal entries from September to man whose love for hi s child comes al knowledge to help Ceej recover. June. Forced to read and write poetry through in his daily greeting: "Hey Bella takes over as narrator, explain­ for the first time in his life, Jack is, at there, son!" ing her own presence in the canyon. best, a reluctant student, skeptical Part of the joy of Love That Dog is

42 Fall 2001

discovering, with Jack, the liberating -the book revolves around the ques­ Louise Rennison's flippant tone and and cathartic nature of writing. Poetry tion of whether or not Georgia will be cynical worldview may be off-putting does not come easily to Jack, nor does able to win back Robbie, a.k.a. "The to some readers. Georgia's parents are the emotional adjustment to life with­ Sex God"-it moves at a good clip and barely present, and when they do out his yellow dog. But with a little manages to evolve into a decent story. appear, they function as comic foils or help from a persistent teacher and some On the Bright Side is equal parts pulp fic­ as examples of immorality and apathy. inspiration from Mr. Walter Dean tion and astute social satire. Though this is a common formula in Myers himself, Jack learns to embrace an activity that originally seemed frus­ trating and difficult, and to make peace with the tragedy in his past. Nothing can bring Sky back, but Jack finds a way to do the next best thing: through Jack's own memories and words, his beloved yellow dog will live on forever. -Jenny Sawyer

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God By Louise Rennison H ARPERCOUINS 236 pages, Age 12 and up, $15.95 ISBN 0-06-0288 13-2

Your family is moving to New Zea­ land. Your boyfriend hasn't kissed you in a week. Worst of all, you have the biggest nose on the planet. For Georgia Nicolson, a fourteen-year-old English girl, this could mean only one thing: trauma rama! Life was just fabbity-fab-fab-fab for Georgia when we left her at the end of Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snog­ gi,ng. Now she's back, with more prob­ lems than ever-that is, if you think boys, a three-year-old sister, and pim­ ples can be catalysts for crisis. The sec­ ond installment of Georgia's saga, like its predecessor, is written in diary form, chronicling her day-to-day (sometimes minute-by-minute) thoughts and mis­ adventures. From outwitting school bullies to winning a hockey match, from saving the neighbor's poodle from her killer cat to capturing the boy of her dreams, Georgia's witty com­ mentary on the trials and triumphs of teen life is lively and engaging. www.spalding .edu Although the plot ofthe novel is thin

43 Riverbank Review teen fiction, the humor in adults who relate to. Being fourteen has its trou­ The Other Side of Truth do nothing right can feel a little thin bles, but as we leave Georgia at the end By Beverley Naidoo after a while. of the novel, we also see the brighter HARPERCOLLINS Nevertheless, Georgia's voice comes side of being a teenager. As she would 272 pages, Age 10 and up, $15.95 through loud and clear in this undeni­ probably admit herself, all things con­ ISBN 0-06-029628-3 ably funny book. She is a character sidered, life is pretty marvy. many young readers will be able to -jenny Sawyer In November 1995, the Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa was hung by his coun­ try's government in a backlash against his criticisms of the abusive Nigerian regime. Set immediately after this his­ torical event, The Other Side of Truth relates a fictional account of one fami­ TWO LITTLE ly's battle against this same dictator­ ship. Smuggled out of the country, TRAINS fourteen-year-old Sade and her younger brother, Femi, find themselves alone in by Margaret Wise Brown London. Their mother is dead (mur­ pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon dered by a bullet meant for her hus­ band), their father is in hiding back in Nigeria, and their London-based uncle's whereabouts are unknown. As the story unfolds, Sade and Femi have the good fortune to be taken in by the London foster care system, but their fate, like that of their father, remains uncertain. From the outset, the book plunges

~\I I~ into the chaos and uncertainty of Sade :::*~ " Brown ' s adorable and Femi's shattered world, making bouncing rhyme about trains [1949] this story a true page-turner. As the has been inventively re-imagined by [the Caldecott Medalists]. reader waits for resolution of the larger A silver 'streamlined train' puffs off to the West, while a tiny question-what will happen to Sade toy train is its echo and shadow in a comfortable, warmly and Fem i's father?-the children's day­ kid-inhabited home .... The artists have chosen exactly to-day experiences, from acclimating the right expression of pure and simple art to accompany the to a new school to adjusting to their equally uncomplicated rhyme. Sure to delight yet another mother's death, add an undercurrent generation of children." -Starred review I Kirkus Reviews of electricity to the already-charged plot. ~\II~ Sade and Femi's reactions to the changes ~~ "This beautiful new edition is in the same spirit as that continuously remold their lives are Brown's Goodnight Moon and should please the same broad realistic, and Beverley Naidoo explores audience. Ifs wonderful to have it back in such appropriate, her characters' emotions with insight and handsome, new garb." and sensitivity. -Starred review I The Horn Book One of the main issues within this :::~\II~*~ "A han dsome remterpretat1on. . [OIJ +l B rown ' s remark a bl e t ex t .,, novel is the courage it takes to stand up -Starred review I ALA Booklist for what is right in the face of over­ whelming adversity. Sade's struggle with Ages 3-6. $15.95 Tr (0-06-028376-9): $15.89 Lb (0-06-028377-7) two school bullies, though it is minor in HarperCollinsChildren 'sBooks comparison to her father's fight against := the dictatorial Nigerian government, helps 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY l 00 19 • \VW\v.harpcn:hildrens.com her to understand the difficulty inherent

44 Fall 2001 in exposing the truth and the strength his rage on his wife and two children. A happens. YoungJu summons the courage one inevitably gains by doing so. poignant collection of material objects to call 911, putting her family on an ulti­ This novel's authentic flavor comes indicates that YoungJu's parents never mately more positive, if painful, road. in part from Naidoo's incorporation of achieve the kind of success they hoped Despite the suffering, Young Ju's Nigerian proverbs and folktales into for in the United States. A "not forev­ voice remains strong, her academic the story. Through them, the culture er" dilapidated apartment takes the place success and strength of spirit pointing and history of Sade's country emerge of the house they can't manage to save her toward a brighter future made pos­ in a tangible way for the reader. Within up for, even though both parents have sible by her parents' sacrifices. Her the story, Sade's remembrance of these more than one job. Their old station father's hands permanently smell of stories and sayings from her childhood wagon, with its peeling faux paneling, ammonia and bleach from cleaning allows her to reconnect both with her ripped seats, and belching exhaust, em­ offices; her mother's are callused by homeland and with her mother, and to barrasses Young Ju, who makes her "years of abuse from physical labor." In find comfort and wisdom in a world mother drop her off blocks from the an epilogue, YoungJu's hands and her that has been turned upside down. beach so her friends won't see it. brother's "turn pages of books, press The Other Side of Truth offers an eye­ While Young Ju can't help feeling fingertips to keyboard buttons, hold opening commentary on human rights self-conscious about her family's pover­ pencils and pens. They are lithe and violations still occurring in various ty, she has graver concerns as well. Her tender." YoungJu's mother has earned parts of the world today. Despite its father's physical abuse escalates through­ the satisfaction of providing not only gritty subject matter, the book's tone is out the novel, and his main victim, for her children, but also for herself, hopeful, encouraging the reader to Young Ju's mother, seems determined having realized that she, too, can be believe, along with Sade and her fami­ to endure it until it ends in death. In a brave and make her own choices. ly, that the truth will ultimately prevail wrenching climactic scene, this almost - Renie Victor and tyranny will be defeated. -Jenny Sawyer

A Step from Heaven By An Na Coming up FRONT STREET IN THE WINTER ISSUE OF 160 pages, Age 12 and up, $15.95 ISBN 1-886910-58-8 When YoungJu's mother tells her they Riverbank Revie"" will fly through the sky to reach their new home in "Mi Gook," a name that always makes her parents smile and Cover Art by Mary Azarian stop fighting, Young Ju assumes they are moving to heaven. Instead, "Mi Gook" is "Ah-me-ri-ka," a strange and Bedtime Books confusing place far from her grand­ mother in Korea, definitely not in the clouds. A Profile of Tove]a nsson Through a vivid present-tense, first­ person narrative, divided into power­ ful short chapters, readers experience Picture Books of Taro Young Ju's initial disorientation and her sense of isolation as she grows older without feeling much closer to fitting Books Writers Give as Gifts in. This is her family's story as well as hers, and it is harrowing to witness her father, as his dreams disintegrate, inflict

45 Riverbank Review Harcourt Children's Books Fall-Winter 2001 Hi hli hts PERFECT FOR THE HOLIDAYS

MIM's MIRACLE ON

! 1•y .~ - ...... CHRISTMAS JAM 34TH STREET Facsimile Edition 1 Andrea Davis Pinkney \. ,. . .'I ~ '· Illustrated by Valentine Davies ... Brian Pinkney ,-~ .• 0-15-201918·9 • $16.00 +. l Ages 3-7 • October MANSA MUSA JABUTi THE TORTOISE The Lion of Mali A Trickster Tale Khephra Burns from the Amazon GIFT SETS Illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon Gerald McDermott 0·15-200375-4 • $ 18.00 0-15·200496-3 • s16 .00 All ages • October Ages 4-8 • September AUNTIE CLAUS GIFT SET CD, Omament, and Book Elise Primavera Narrated by Ellen Burstyn 0-1 5-216259·3 • $24.95 Ages 4 and up • October

MONSTER GOOSE TELL ME WHAT TIME FOR BED GIFT SET Judy Sierra h's LIKE TO BE BIG Night-light and Board Book Illustrated by Jack E. Davis Joyce Dunbar Mem Fox 0·15·202034-9 • s16.00 Illustrated by Debi Gliori Ages 5-8 • September Illustrated by Jane Dyer 0·15·202564-2 • $16.00 0-15-216228·3 • 115.95 Ages 3-7 • September All ages • October

KIPPER

t\ippL"r·.-. "'unny Do) KIPPER AND ROLY 'r Mick lnkpen "' 0-15 -2 16344-1 • $13.95 ~ ,,. Ages 3-7 • August ALTOONA UP NORTH MOUNTAIN DANCE 6 ~ .. ~ r '~!",. Janie Bynum Thomas Locker New Lift-the-Flap Stories 0·15·202313·5 • 114.00 0·15·202622-3 • $16.00 $5.95 each • Ages 2-5 • September Ages 3-7 • September All ages • October SOMETHING WONDERFUL EGYPTIAN MUMMIES Jenny Nimmo People from the Past FOR OLDER READERS Illustrated by Debbie Boon Delia Pemberton O·lS-216486·3 • $1600 0-15-202600·2 . $1800 Ages 3-7 • September Ages 8- 12 • September

Turning points in American THE BIG NAP THE SECRET SCHOOL BORN BLUE history A Chet Gecko Mystery Avi Han Nolan Bruce Ha le 0-15-216375·1 • $16.00 0·15·201916·2 . 11700 Ages 10-14 • $6.00 each 0-15-202521 ·9 • 114 00 Ages 8- 12 • August Ages 14 and up • October Ages 8-12 • October

For a fall-winter 2001 catalog featuring our complete list, Harcourt Illustrations copyright c' 2001 b.1· Gerald McDermott frorn/almri rl11· ?l1rrorst contact your sales representative or call toll-free Copyright ·.t 2001 by llarcourt. In c. A ll rights reserved. Prices ~111d avai labilit y are subject to ch~mge. Prices arc higher in Canada. 1-800-543-1918. In Canada, call toll-free 1-800-663-5714.

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Open your eyes-and ears-to the pleasures of children's books. Subscribe to the Riverbank Review.

Yes! I would like D one year (4 issues): $22.95 D two years: $37.95 (For Canadian subscribers: D one year: $32.95 D two years: $52.95)

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sionate even to the unlovable; clever, and then three times fools the forest Nonfiction & faithful, and persevering. giant into believing she has bested him Traditional Li tera tu re Huck tells the story in language in their wagers. that is at once traditional and natural A little girl's exaggerated claims of ~ to the contemporary ear. The twists strength bamboozle this boasting dullard The Black Bull of Norroway and turns of the plot will be enjoyed by every time. In their contest to see who Retold by Charlotte Huck children who recognize them as famil­ can throw a huge iron bar the farthest, Illustrated by Anita Lobel iar elements of folk and fairy tales. Well Beatrice asks the giant if he knows any­ G REENWILLOW paired with the straightforward yet one who lives in Canada. He concedes 40 pages, Age 6 and up, $15.95 melodious text are Anita Lobel's dra­ that he has brothers living there ("They ISBN 0-688-16900-7 matic earth-toned illustrations. In keep­ like the wind and snow") and our plucky ing with the tale's origins, her paintings heroine convinces by implication: A Scottish folktale that takes place in evoke the craggy, dark landscape of the "Brothers of Mister Giant! I am going to Norway (Norroway, to the Scots), this is Scottish highlands. throw this bar your way- watch your the story of a courageous and compas­ -Krystyna Paray Goddu heads!" Oh, but the giant doesn't dare sionate young girl who proclaims that to allow his brothers to be disturbed in her only requirement for marriage is such a way, and so he hands over more Clever Beatrice that the man be good and kind and gold coins. Incredulous that the giant By Margaret Willey love her. "I'd even be content with the has fallen for every bit of her trickery, Illustrated by Heather Solomon Black Bull ofNorroway," she declares, Beatrice backs slowly away from his ATHENEUM and her two older sisters, whose desires 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $16.00 cabin, holding a bag full of money to her chest. We're right there with her­ are more materialistic, are horrified. ISBN: 0-689-83254-0 Naturally, when it is her turn for mar­ amazed and gratified that she's man­ riage, the Black Bull comes for her. Move over, Paul Bunyan. Another aged to pull it off Children familiar with the tale of Beau­ oversized mythic male is roaming the Heather Solomon's highly original ty and the Beast will quickly realize northern forests of the Midwest (in this collage and painted illustrations bring a that the bull is a bewitched prince and case, the Upper Peninsula ofMichigan) fitting three-dimensional effect to Clever that it is up to the heroine (prosaically and like all great giants, he is very large, Beatrice. On the story's first page, Beat­ named Peggy Ann) to break the spell very sure of himself, and more than a rice's eyes meet ours as she seems to step with kindness and compassion. Indeed, little dim-witted. In a modern twist on confidently toward us out of the frame she grows fond of the bull in their trav­ traditional "contes"-stories that origi­ of the painting. Here is a girl who looks els and does break the spell. But that is nally featured voyageurs tricking rich smart and brave enough to outwit a giant! not the end of the story: now it is up to and powerful giants-clever Margaret -Christine A!fano the bull, revealed as a handsome duke, Willey introduces readers to a delight­ to defeat the Guardian of the Glen in a fully different foil: young Beatrice, The Cod's Tale battle. He cautions Peggy Ann to stay who strides across these pages with a By Mark Kurlansky absolutely still so that he will be able to bright resourcefulness. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler find her afterwards. When she fails in Willey snares the vitality of contes PUTNAM this, she undergoes further tests and in her telling: "Sure, she was little, but 48 pages, Age 5 and up, $1 6. 99 hardships before finally winning back Beatrice loved riddles and tricks and ISBN 0-399-23476-4 the duke. she could think fast on her feet." Her In a concise and informative author's language swings us along into the story There are those who think that by sim­ note Charlotte Huck declares, "Rather as Beatrice, eating the last bit of her ply cutting down the word count and than write modern fairy tales with family's porridge, determines that "it is adding a few pictures, an adult master­ brave heroines I prefer to search for the time ... to go out into the far north woods piece magically transforms into a suc­ traditional tales th;it show plucky and get some money." Of course, there cessful children's book. Thankfully, girls." The Black Bull ofNorroway is cer­ are only two ways to earn cash in that this is most emphatically not the case tainly such a tale. area: lumberjacking or tricking giants. with Mark Kurlansky's The Cod's Tale, Peggy Ann is modest in her desires; The satisfying rhythm of this tall tale an adaptation of his best-selling adult courageous despite her fears; compas- emerges when Beatrice once, twice, work, Cod: A Biography efthe Fish That

47 Riverbank Review

Illustration by S. D. Schindler,from The Cod's Tale

Changed the World. With great skill, rich town in Massachusetts, eventually Ministry of the Environment to reestab­ Kurlansky has taken a very grown-up making fish sticks available in every school lish a colony of common eider ducks 294-page history and, with the help of lunchroom in America. The ability to on Hvallatur Island. In the process, the S. D. Schindler's buoyant, entertaining freeze fish allowed cod fisherman to stay ducklings' down feathers will be gath­ watercolors, has created a child-size out longer and catch more fish, eventu­ ered for use as insulation for jackets version of an adult work that succeeds ally reducing the cod population to and bedclothes. For this project, Bruce on its own terms. today's scarce level. McMillan revisits the setting of his It helps that Kurlansky tells a fasci­ In sidebars and insets, Kurlansky award-winning Nights of the Pujflings, nating story. Who knew that cod could and Schindler present fascinating cod which also dealt with the restoration be considered an important unseen force lore, from a 1393 recipe for dried cod and preservation of an animal habitat. behind the great tides of Western Euro­ (called "stockfish") to cooking tips from We follow Drifa as she painstaking­ pean history? Kurlansky has a fondness the British navy of the 1920s. A range of ly collects eider duck eggs from nearby for the unexpected, and this work, like cultures bordering the Atlantic play a islands, takes them to Hvallatur, and the history of the codfish itself, is never role in this history, from Nova Scotia waits for them to hatch. Then her work predictable. Codfish schools, once plen­ to the French Caribbean. A running time really begins. Caring for 208 eider duck­ tiful, have now become extremely scarce line connects cod to historical events, lings is no easy task, no matter how due to overfishing. But the Vikings once while the watercolor-and-pen illustrations cute they are, or how sweetly they fol­ fed their ships and colonies with dried present a whimsical cartoon history of low Drifa around. They must be fed, cod, the perfect food for long sea voy­ cod in full-page panoramas and lively spot watered, cleaned up after, sheltered­ ages, being both easy to obtain and long­ illustrations. Even the endpapers-made and acclimated to the rugged condi­ lasting. Basque fishermen grew rich by using a Japanese printing technique in tions on the island, located just seven­ selling the cod they found off the coast which an entire inked cod is pressed ty-five miles south of the Arctic Circle. of North America-long before Colum­ against rice paper-are arresting. Each day, Drifa leads her charges down bus sailed for the New World. The Wam­ With humor and skill, Kurlansky and to the beach at low tide to let them get panoag showed the Pilgrims how to fer­ Schindler have created an entertaining a feel for being in the water while she tilize their crops by sowing codfish heads work that retells familiar history from a watches for wayward ducklings and among the plants. Cod played an inte­ highly unusual perspective. predatory seagulls. gral role in the infamous triangle of -Kathryne Beebe It would be easy to become attached molasses, rum, and slave trading between to the ducklings, but we are reminded Europe, the American colonies, and the that Drifa must not allow them to Days of the Ducklings Caribbean, serving as food for the mer­ become too tame, or they will not sur­ By Bruce McMillan sold the slaves, the slaves vive as wild birds. Photographs of the chants who H OUGHTON MIFFLIN clambering over Drifa, wad­ whose labor provided the molasses and 32 Pages, Ages 4-8, $16.00 ducklings dling after her, responding to her coo­ rum, and the Europeans and colonists ISBN 0-618-04878-2 who bought molasses, rum, and slaves. ing, and settling on her as she naps tes­ Clarence Birdseye learned to freeze Days of the Ducklings details the true tify to their affection for her. It's clear, vegetables in Canada, then in 1924 estab­ story of Drffa, a young Icelandic girl though, that she knows that the best lished a frozen-fish factory in a codfish- who has obtained a license from the way to help the ducklings is to ca re for

48 The long-awaited companion to the best-selling Aninialia!

Graeme Base is back with a brilliant fusion of counting And be sure to explore book, puzzle book, story and art book that will captivate curious young minds. In his newest masterpiece, a parade of brilliantly depicted animals gather around a shrinking water hole - while die-cut pages reveal scenes from 10 different worldwide habitats, from African plains to Himalayan mountains to the Australian outback. Careful readers will find animals everywhere, silhouetted in the borders of every spread and hiding within every landscape. Once again, Base's visual feast of lush scenes will fascinate on many levels - while providing a subtle ecological lesson.

32 pages of illustrations in full color • All ages • $18.95 • 0-8109-4568-1

100 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10011 • www.abramsbooks.com Riverbank Review them with equal measures of practical­ ity and imagination. For example, when the ducklings are a little older and Drifa notices some of them straying during their trips to the beach, she builds a walkway to help them find their own way between the water and their pen. The book chronicles the ducklings' development over the course of a sum­ mer, emphasizing Drifa's sense of re­ sponsibility as she nurses the hatch­ lings along, then watches over them as young adults. McMillan's text and photographs do justice to his appealing subjects with­ out sentimentalizing them; the sensitive images complement the abundance of factual material in the text. Close-ups of Drifa and the ducklings are balanced by panoramic views of the landscape. Days of the Ducklings is an engaging and in­ spiring portrait of a young person rising to meet a challenge. At the back of the book, there is more information on the eider duck and a selected bibliography. -Antonia Gray

A Dragon in the Sky: The Story of a Green Darner Dragonfly By Laurence Pringle Illustrated by Bob Marstall ORCHARD/ SCHOLASTIC 64 pages, Ages 8- 12, $18.95 Photograph by Bruce McMillan,ftom Days of the Ducklings ISBN 0-53 1-303 15-2 Life: The Story of a Monarch Butteifly gen, and narrowly escaping the giant How often do we think of the air right (Orchard, 1997): they follow one fic­ water bug and other predators. The ele­ over our heads as wilderness? Accord­ tional representative specimen from egg gant illustrations zoom in close and pull ing to this engrossing nature study, it is to the end of its life cycle. An inviting back to offer both exciting microscop­ here, above city parks and highways and painting of a New York wetland, done ic views and a strong fee l for the ecosys­ even World Series games, where migrat­ in the cool greens and creamy parch­ tem in which Anax develops. Printed in ing dragonflies pursue their prey. Ordi­ ment tones Marstall uses throughout green alongside the main text is comple­ narily, a mosquito dying and being eaten the book, opens the story, setting the mentary information: an excerpt about may not seem like high drama, but in stage for the birth of a green darner a dragonfly from a Tennyson poem, a Laurence Pringle and Bob Marstall's dragonfly nymph called Anax. Pringle's note referring to an ancient fossilized account, one insect chasing another be­ precise, dignified descriptions get close dragonfly with a twenty-seven-inch wing­ comes as suspenseful as "cheetahs pursu­ to his subjects without anthropomor­ span ("as wide as that of a crow"). ing gazelles on Africa's Serengeti Plain." phizing them. We witness Anax "grow­ Although each segment of Anax's Author and illustrator take the ing up" underwater- feeding, molting, life history is fascinating in its own right, approach they took in An Extraordinary pumping water across his gills for oxy- his story figuratively as well as literally

50 Fall 2001

takes flight when he reaches adulthood: breeders, as fishing-net casualties, or as a narrative around efforts to protect "As they migrated, Anax and other startling carrion washed up on the beach. Kemp's ridley turtles, the species of sea dragonflies sometimes flew at a steady Interruptedjournry abounds with sea turtle most threatened by extinction. twenty-five miles per hour. At that pace, turtles; photos of the animals grace The result is compelling, informative, flying from dawn until dusk, they could almost every page. But the book pro­ and heartening, made immediate through cover three hundred miles in a day." A vides no start-to-finish turtle-or human Lasky's close observation and Christo­ map shows that Anax's path took him -protagonist. Instead, Lasky constructs pher Knight's photographs, which from his New York birthplace down the East Coast, all the way to Florida-a typical trip for a green darner, according to Pringle, who says members of this species have even been spotted flying over the Gulf of Mexico. A different 2001 Boston Globe- wetland is pictured toward the end of the book, this one with an alligator floating half-submerged in the sand­ colored water. But Anax's mission is the same as his father's: he mates with Fiction and Poetry Award females, who altogether deposit thou­ sands of eggs, so that some will survive Winner: Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street) to start the cycle all over again. Honor Book: Evenjthing on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Farrar) -Renie Victor Honor Book: Troy by Adele Geras (Harcourt)

Interrupted Journey: Nonfiction Award Saving Endangered Sea Turtles Winner: The Longitude Prize by Joan Dash; illus. by Dusan PetriCic By Kathryn Lasky (Foster / Farrar) Photos by Christopher G. Knight Honor Book: Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst; illus. by James CANDLEWICK Stevenson (Greenwillow) 39 pages, Ages 6-10, $16.99 Honor Book: Uncommon ISBN 0-7636.0635·9 Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa written and illus. by Don Brown (Houghton) Sea turtles are a promising yet difficult subject for a children's book. In their Picture Book Award early years they face dangers from every Winner: Cold Feet by Cynthia Defelice; illus. by Robert Andrew direction; their famous first crawl to Parker (DK Ink) the water sends them unaware through Honor Book: Five Creatures by Emily Jenkins; illus. by Tomek a gauntlet of prey animals. Whether a Bogacki (Foster / Farrar) child finds the hatchlings cute or bug­ like, their peril will provoke sympathy. Honor Book: The Stray Dog retold and illus. by Marc Simont Full grown, sea turtles are slow giants. The (HarperCollins) difficulty comes in trying to understand these silent, ancient beings. A writer The Boston Globe-Hom Book Awards for Excellence in Children's would have to be either ignorant or sac­ Literature are presented annually. For more information about the charine to anthropomorphize them. Tur­ awards or The Horn Book Magazine and The Horn Book Guide, visit tles, as the seasoned nonfiction writer www.hbook.com or call 800-325-1170. Kathryn Lasky points out, never meet their parents, nor do they socialize except at mating time. To humans, they're in­ scrutable. When they're young they swim ~<. 56 Rolood Str~t, Suite 200 • Bo"oo, M""'""~'" 02129 out of sight, reappearing years later as

5 1 Riverbank Review document the activity of sea-turtle res­ cuers, step by step. Beginning with a boy's rescue of a juvenile Kemp's ridley beached by cold weather on Cape Cod and con­ cluding with a man's sendoff ofhatch­ lings in Mexico, Lasky follows human Always Planting efforts to protect the turtles from north to south, along the Eastern seaboard. Along the way, she introduces rescuers: Apple Trees veterinarians, volunteers, and one hotel proprietor/turtle rehabilitator. Knight's camera has caught these people ab­ Johnny Appleseed: his lifetime, now-familiar anecdotes sorbed in work. To these individuals, The Story of a Legend began to be told about the man who wore informed action is more important By Will Moses a tin pot for a hat and showed extraor­ than the certainty of results. Whatever PHILOMEL dinary kindness to everyone he met. the odds for an individual turtle's sur­ 32 pages, Ages 6-10, $16. 99 Will Moses has painstakingly re­ vival, the rescuers "know that they are ISB N 0-399-23 I 53-6 searched local historical sources and doing their part to help return the tur­ contemporary accounts to include almost tles to health, to help return them to Johnny Appleseed every element known about Chapman's the sea." By Rosemary and life, recounting several stories that may Lasky explains that humans "rep­ Stephen Vincent Benet not be familiar to contemporary read­ resent the worst hazard" for sea turtles. Illustrated by S. D. Schindler ers. Moses's art matches his writing style: Years of human interference, which re­ M C ELDERRY the oil paintings record scenes from sulted in the decimation of the Kemp's 40 pages, Ages 4-8, $16.00 Chapman's life in fascinating detail. In ridley population, must now be coun­ ISBN 0-689-82975-2 warm, vibrant colors, tiny people and tered by interference of a different sort. animals fill the town scenes with life, But this is a delicate proposition. The Fall brings us two new books on John­ and beautiful pink-and-white apple blos­ great number of casualties expected in ny Appleseed: a picture-book biography soms fill the wilderness. A tall, lanky an animal producing as many as a by respected folk artist Will Moses, great­ Johnny, depicted with dark eyes and an hundred eggs per nest cannot be offset grandson of Grandma Moses, and a untamed black beard, wanders the pages, by a tiny nesting population. Readers picture-book edition of the 1933 poem playing with a mother bear and her cubs, will be relieved to note that, at the sin­ "Johnny Appleseed" by Rosemary and riding an ice floe down a river, and gle known, established nesting place Stephen Vincent Benet, illustrated by always, always planting apple trees. for Kemp's ridleys, the interventions S. D. Schindler. In the second johnny Appleseed, S. D. seem to be working. Yet they might In johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Schindler's illustrations transform a wonder how turtles hatching in trans­ Legend, Will Moses's lively, colorful short poem by Rosemary and Stephen planted nest "corrals" can make it to folk art accompanies what feels like a Vincent Benet into a delightful picture the sea through a dense neighborhood fireside tale, giving us both the legend book. The Benets wrote ''.Jo hnny Apple­ of netting-protected nests. The answer and the living man. Born in 1774,John seed" as part of A Book ofAmericans, a is another intervention: volunteers carry Chapman grew up in a large family and poetry collection intended to introduce hatchlings to the water's edge. This spent most of his childhood in the schoolchildren to great figures of Amer­ handling doesn't seem to hinder the woods around Longmeadow, Massa­ ican history. The rhythm and rhyme of young turtles' determination. If sea chusetts. In his early twenties he re­ "Johnny Appleseed" recall early Amer­ turtles survive, it will be through the ceived a vision of angels telling him to ican ballads, and the simple verses are combined force of restorative effort plant apple trees in the wilderness. From well suited to a picture-book format. and the mysterious, innate purpose then until late in his seventies, Chap­ The Benets are less concerned with that sends female turtles to shore and man followed this vision. Even during historical details than with creating a hatchlings to the sea. -Jessica Roeder

52 Fall 2001

portrait of an American legend in verse. Indians is presented as at least initially Therefore, there are fewer anecdotes and threatening to Johnny, a scenario that is facts in this johnny Appleseed, but the historically credible but might rub some few that appear are highly evocative. readers the wrong way. In the Benet We learn that Johnny Appleseed dressed poem, there is reference to a "stalking in rags but carried his seeds in the best Indian." in Moses's account, "a band deerskin bags he could find. And, of rampaging Indians" chase Johnny, but Moses observes: "Most of the time ... At seventy-odd Johnny and the Indians got along just be He was gnarled as could fine-after all, they were a lot alike." A But ruddy and sound note from the Benets' son Thomas points As a good apple tree. out that his parents were writing in the S. D. Schindler's soft, colored-pen­ 1930s and did not intend any disre­ cil illustrations bring this sprightly, spect. Being quite progressive for their gnarled Johnny Appleseed to life. As era, they wrote elsewhere: an old man, Johnny Appleseed capers But just remember this about about juggling apples and bending down Our ancestors so dear branches so children can reach the fruit. fllustration by Will Moses They didn't find an empty land. The illustrations' fine, hatched lines The Indians were here. offer an amazing range of textures­ Schindler's finest spreads illustrate Johnny' s tweed vest seems positively John Chapman's ongoing legacy. One This short note helps a modem audience fuzzy; the wispy grass seems to wave in shows an apple tree (roots and all) grow­ to put both the poem and the Johnny the wind. Capturing the colors of the ing from a seed into a mature plant. At Appleseed legend in a historical context. Ohio Valley that Johnny Appleseed one end of the spread, Johnny drops Each johnny Appleseed offers its own planted, the crisp, clear russets and the seed in the ground; at the other end, distinct pleasures, while giving readers blues and greens bleed all the way to a modem child in jeans reaches for a an engaging portrait of one of Ameri­ the edge of the page, inviting the read­ ripe apple from the full-grown tree. ca's most beloved folk heroes. er to step into that world. In both books, the appearance of -Kathryne Beebe

For fifty years over Of harvest and dew, He planted his apples Where no apples grew.

Illustration by S. D. Schindler

53 Riverbank Review

The Race of the Birkebeiners faster and fiercer the snow fell. It blind­ the "truth" of the story they have just By Lise Lunge-Larsen ed their eyes and stung their cheeks, read, which is the truth of stories pow­ Illustrated by Mary Azarian but they hunched their shoulders and erful enough to survive from genera­ H OUG HTON MIFFLIN skied on." There is a physicality to her tion to generation. 32 pages, Ages 5-9, $16.00 prose that brings the story to life : "The - Susan Marie Swanson ISBN 0-6 18-10313-9 big man took the child awkwardly into his arms, for he had never held a baby Sigmund Freud: Based on a saga from medieval Nor­ before. He strapped him to his chest Pioneer of the Mind way, this story is a satisfying brew of and then he secured his shield on top to By Catherine Reef heroic survival story, political history, protect the prince from the wind." CLARION and miracle tale. Both the text and the Appended to the story of the moun­ 152 pages, Age I 2 and up, $I 9. 00 artwork incorporate extensive research tain rescue is a second story, a brief ISBN 0-618-01762-3 without getting bogged down. When account of how Inga underwent the storyteller Lise Lunge-Larsen, whose "Ordeal of the Burning Irons" in order When Sigmund Freud was a little boy, previous books include The Troll with to prove that her child was the true son his mother called him Sigi, a playful No Heart in His Body, explains that the of the king. After she holds red hot name for someone who would later warriors known as Birkebeiners "could irons, her hands are wrapped in strips of change the course of human thought. sleep through snowstorms by burying cloth, and three days later, when the Freud's radical goal as a psychoanalyst themselves in drifts and putting shields was to "make the unconscious known," on top for protection," we can trust says Catherine Reef, the author of this that we're learning something we need lucid and balanced biography. to know. The world of the story is a In the mid-1880s, Freud was young world of snow, hand-hewn and carved and happily employed in neurological wood, and winter trees, making wood­ research when his desire to marry led cut artist Mary Azarian, who won the him into medicine, a better-paying field. Caldecott Medal for Snowflake Bentley, Eager to make himself known, he pub­ an inspired choice for illustrator. Her lished an article praising cocaine-a legal presentation of the architecture of substance at the time-but regretted medieval Norway-from the towers of his stand when a friend he was treating the wooden churches to the open fires with this little-known drug became de­ set in the middle of rooms- is striking. pendent on it. Details in costume are equally intrigu­ This was not the last time Freud ing: iron helmets, belts with pouches would reevaluate his thinking on a sub­ or axes attached to them, and, of course, Illustration by Mary Azarian,from The ject. Reef portrays him as a scholar who the birch bark leggings for which the Race of the Birkebeiners was flexible and honest in most respects peasant Birkebeiners ("Birchleggers") (less so in others), and inarguably bold. were named. cloth is ceremoniously removed, her Freud delved into taboo subjects, such The story of the dramatic rescue on hands show "not a trace of a burn." as sex, and looked beyond convention­ skis of the one-year-old Prince Hakon, Both stories in this picture book are al wisdom. His colleagues didn't notice heir to the throne, by a team made up based on a saga crafted by a medieval sexuality in children, didn't think that of warriors, his mother, Inga, and the author whose task was to celebrate and dreams had meaning, didn't recognize priest who took the baby and his moth­ secure Hakon's place in history as a the symptoms of "hysteria" in men. er into hiding following the king's great king ordained by God. Curiously, Freud did. death, is familiar to every Norwegian Lunge-Larsen concludes the rescue Throughout the book, Reef intro­ - and to cross-country skiers every­ story and begins the ordeal story with duces terms advanced by Freud­ where, who commemorate the story in the words, "Now, if this were a fairy Oedipus complex, wish fulfillment, annual ski races in Norway and the tale, the story would be over. But this ego, id, and others- that are now a part United States. Lunge-Larsen's retelling story is true, and what happened next is of ordinary parlance. She gives due is appropriately vigorous: "The farther perhaps most miraculous of all." Read­ consideration to Freud's critics, both they skied into the mountains, the ers may be confused, as a result, as to in his day and in ours. Rather than pre-

54 Fall 2001 senting a defense of his ideas, she 1935, in the midst of the Depression, Christensen tells us that "i t was underscores his overall importance. "It Guthrie had joined the masses of clear to Woody that the people needed is impossible," she says, "to understand bankrupt farmers fleeing the Dust a voice to speak for them, a voice to ask psychology at the start of the twenty­ Bowl for migrant work in California, their questions. They needed someone first century without some knowledge where he was disillusioned by the low who was not afraid of the bosses, some­ of Freud." wages and appalling conditions in the one who knew what it was like to be This book is an excellent place to workers' camps. poor. Woody Guthrie became their begin to build that knowledge. It is a humanizing portrait, from Reefs account ofFreud's courtship of his wife, through his productive if not always lasting friendships, to his last days as a Jewish * "A delightfully humorous story about refugee escaping Hitler at the age of cooking and personal achievement:' -Booklist, starred review eighty-two. Readers will be drawn to the j_~ *"DELICIOUS!" book's surrealistic jacket illustration by * "Prepared to perfection and - Kirku s Rtv1ews, starred review : CliffNielsen and will not be disappoint­ served up with style." ed by the solid and interesting text. Beau­ -Publishers Weekly, starred review tiful design and telling photographs * "The playful nature of both the enhance this fine biography. illustrations and the text -Mary Lou Burket is appealing."-School Library Journal, starred review Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People By Bonnie Christensen KNOPF 32 pages, Age 5 and up, $16.95 ISBN 0-375-81113-3

Bonnie Christensen's picture book biog­ raphy ofWoody Guthrie is a great intro­ duction to the folksinger who wrote over a thousand songs, including such classics as "This Land Is Your Land." Her mixed­ media illustrations have a rough-edged feel reminiscent of woodcuts and a pal­ ette that features both strong black lines and subdued earth tones. The text is FANNIE FANNIE IN THE KITCHEN concise and consistently involving, and it 111tlu: KITCHEN tells just enough to make the reader The Whole Story from Soup to want to know more. Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Guthrie lived a hard life during hard Invented Recipes with Precise times. Born in Oklahoma in 1912, he Measurements supported himself from the age of sev­ enteen by selling newspapers, singing, by Deborah Hopkinson dancing, and playing the harmonica. Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter 0-689-81965-X $16.00 As a young man, he traveled the rail­ roads with migrant workers. He briefly AN ANNE SCHWARTZ BOOK settled in Texas, where he learned to play ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS SIMON & SCHUSTER CHILDREN 'S Pu BLISH ING • www.S1MONSAvsK1os. coM the guitar and write songs, and where he formed his first country group. By

55 Riverbank Review voice, and songs were his way of speak­ right," he said. And so he did, through­ pay and working conditions. In 1952 ing." Guthrie's concern for his fellows, out the 1930s and 1940s, writing songs Guthrie was diagnosed with Hunting· his desire to lift them up emotionally and performing in concert and on the ton's disease, which had claimed his and protest on their behalf, provided radio to encourage American soldiers mother, and he was unable to sing or the backbone for his musical career. at war and downhearted workers at home. play the guitar in the years leading to "I... made up songs telling what I He was an outspoken advocate of his death in 1967, though he was able to thought was wrong and how to make it unions as a tool for negotiating better enjoy his son Ario's music and to hear his own songs being played by other mus1oans. Guthrie's story is especially inter­ esting because of his involvement with " "* so many of the people and issues of his day. He was patriotic, but, as the text reveals, toward the end of his life he worried that some of the verses of "This Land Is Your Land" were being censored by other singers because they "addressed hardship and unfairness in America." Guthrie thought these were important issues, and he made sure to teach Ario every verse so that the song would live on in its original form. At the end of the book are the complete lyrics to "This Land Is Your Land" and a chronology of Guthrie's life. -Antonia Gray Willl r;cultiS bl kAOiR NELSON Poetry ISBN: 0-439-08792-9 • $16.95 ~ A Poke in the I Selected by Paul B. Janeczko Illustrated by Chris Raschka CANDLEWICK illustrated y 35 pages, Age 5 and up, $15.99 I BN 0-7636--066 1-8

* "The lyrics from Smith's rap (of the same title) are beautifully illustrated In concrete poems, the type plays a ... Nelson uses a broad palette in his pencil and oil paintings to prominent role in what the poem says, capture emotion and gesture in close-up or landscape views. The often through expressive typesetting. pictures are full of light, shadow, and love." - Kirkus Reviews • Concrete poems can be comic or seri­ ous, and the borders of concrete poetry " ... Smith has transformed the lyrics of his 1997 song into a wonderful are not always clear. This new antholo­ book for youngsters ... the words are expressive ... [and] convey the sure sense of a parent's love and care .... the stunning images . . . gy of concrete poems greets the reader conjure up a marvelous atmosphere of spaciousness and freedom .. . with a clever bit of design before the A lovely book ... " - School Library journal book gets under way: the copyright notice is typeset to form a page-size copy­ right symbol corralling the Library of www.scholastic.com Scholastic Press Congress cataloging data. Is it a poem? ----­ Probably not, but the book designer is

56 Fall 2001

the book a contemporary, urban atti­ tude. They sport contrasting colors at the knees and cheeks, expressive paint­ ed eyebrows, and extravagantly shaped hair (or none at all); they might be dreamy or shy, but they are always chic. Raschka's poetic contribution-a single word, cat, set in a tom-paper arm­ chair-is more an illustration than a poem. The majority of poems in this collection are created with a range of poetic tools. Among these, the manip­ ulation of type is the showiest and per­ haps the most engaging, since even the wariest eye must follow the playful type wherever it leads. -Jessica Roeder

Some from the Moon, Some from the Sun: Poems and Songs for Everyone By Margot Zemach FARRAR, STRAUS & GI ROUX 4 8pages , A fl ages, $17. 00 Poem by Mary Elkn Solt,from A Poke in the I ISBN 0-374-39960-3 making a joke within the confines of fidelity to a lifetime of sensory experi­ Readers today take for granted the vivid publishing requirements-a promising ence. The latter poem is so firmly rooted colors that appear in their books, but this start. Throughout, A Poke in the !is, more in adult sensibility as to be out of place book is resplendent. Looking at the layers accurately, a poke in the ribs. in this light and playful collection; the of bright watercolor ink in the pictures, The lines of "A Weak Poem" droop poem's sensory memories include the we half expect to find a dripping brush down the page, the lines of "Skipping taste of wine and of (presumably a close at hand. It is fitting that the work Rope Spell" roll up in spirals one after lover's) "cool skin." Most children won't of an artist so expert in her use of color another, and those of "Giraffe" form a notice the typographical error in the be given such beautiful treatment. giraffe's shape while bemoaning the key line; for adults who do, it will ren­ Margot Zemach died in 1989, in her fact that the long-necked animal can't der that part of the poem nonsensical. late fifties. The jacket copy calls Some see how lovely his closer-to-the-ground Thanks to the rigors of deciphering from the Moon, Some from the Sun "her parts are. "Acrobats" repeats acrobats in contorted print each day, the current final book." The text is an assortment of a rectangle of type that seems jumbled generation of young readers may be twenty-seven folk rhymes, some of them and contorted but is in fact carefully better equipped than previous ones to as well known as "This little pig went to patterned. The blooming branches of read concrete poetry. But adults will be market" and "Star light, star bright," and "Forsythia" are made of the word's let­ pleased to find this book entirely legi­ many less familiar, like the title rhyme: ters and their symbols in Morse code. ble: the poems are almost all set against For all their visual brashness, some white pages, and the type is crisp. The elephants are coming of the poems demonstrate the subtler side Chris Raschka's energetic paint-and­ One by one, Some from the moon, of concrete poetry. Most notable for torn-paper illustrations play along with Some from the sun. shades of meaning are John Hollander's the poems rather than against them. "Swan and Shadow," a wistful ode, and Patterns and colors repeat from page to Taken together, the text and illus­ "Eskimo Pie," in which an adult trans­ page, unifying the book. Blue, green, red, trations celebrate the tradition of forms eating a Popsicle into a test of his black, or yellow, his stylized figures lend rhymes memorized in childhood and

57 Riverbank Review

Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art Selected by Belinda Rochelle H ARPERCOLLJNS 48 pages, Age 7 and up, $16.95 ISBN 0·688-16415-3

In Belinda Rochelle's picture book When Jo Louis Won the Title, the young protag­ onist's grandfather told stories in which "words were like wings." One of these stories helped Jo take pride in her name by explaining its significance to her fam­ ily and to history: her grandfather arrived in Harlem in the first moments after Joe Louis's boxing victory. The freedom and spiritual power associated with wings come through words that may transcend pain but are not free-floating or forgetful. Now Rochelle brings this conception of winged words to an anthology that introduces young readers to poems and visual art by African Americans. Rochelle has selected works of artists from various times, aesthetics, politics, Illustration by Margot Zemarh,from Some from the Moon, Some from the Sun and backgrounds. Yet, almost alchemical­ ly, the works gain in power when they are passed on to children and grandchil­ apparently from Zemach's papers. An brought together. In the introduction dren. Thus, the book is a hodgepodge: extensive bibliography lists nearly fifty and biographical notes, Rochelle explains a rhyme about eating worms bumps up more books written or illustrated-or the artists' differences but also notes their against a couplet about birds and a both- by this celebrated artist. The participation in community. William sweet verse about friendship. The world book concludes with an engaging bio­ Stanley Braithwaite (1878-1962), for in­ of Zemach's artwork is a place where graphical sketch featuring personal nar­ stance, "wanted to be considered a poet, little girls wear giant hair ribbons and rative, photos, childhood artwork, and not a black poet, but he served as a men­ generous skirts, boys wear knickers, other examples of artwork that trace tor to other African Americans who were and geese run loose in the yard. But for Zemach's development as an artist. "I writers, including Langston Hughes and all its old-fashioned iconography, the never ever had enough paper," says Paul Laurence Dunbar." Each work has art has a contemporary feel. "Little Zemach. "I drew on any scrap of paper the force ofconviction. The poems speak Jumping Joan" might be wearing a I could find: napkins, the backs of en­ in unmistakably powerful, personal shawl, pinafore, and shoes that button, velopes, even tissues .... I liked to sit in voices-whatever the tone-and are but she also looks sturdy and self­ bed listening to radio dramas, illustrat­ often directly addressed to the reader. assured. The angels that lean over the ing stories or nursery rhymes for my Each of the paintings (plus one sculp­ bed to bless a child's sleep are anything own amusement: Cinderella, Rumpel­ ture) contains a distinct, unified vision. but traditional beauties. stiltskin,Jack Be Nimble." The pictures Together, these vital pieces make for a Though readers needn't be Zemach in this new book, like so much of vigorous, felicitous introduction to art. aficionados to enjoy this good-humored Zemach's art, give one the sense that Most often, the visual art has a book, the volume is designed as a trib­ they were painted in much the same straightforward correspondence to the ute to its illustrator. The endpapers are frame of mind as that childhood work. poem with which it's paired, but two of a jumble of lively sketches of animals, - Susan Marie Swanson the more complicated pairings are par-

58 Fall 2001 ticularly inspired. The book opens with Again, the celebration of community Lucille Clifton's "auction street," which stands alongside remembrance. Reviewers in This Issue calmly demands that the reader "con­ Children will find not only history ~ sider the block" where people were sold and community but also childhood ex­ as slaves, and honor it "for the music it periences here. Rita Dove's "Fifth Grade Christine Alfano lives in Minneapolis with has had to bear." This is a difficult place Autobiography" and "Primer" capture her family. A former bookseller, she writes for an anthology to begin, but the poem moments of preadolescence with their about children's books for the Ruminator is an act of consecration. On the facing passionate, conflicting emotions. Other Review and other publications. page, Jacob Lawrence's bustling Commu­ poems offer an adult's broadened under­ Kathryne Beebe, a.freelance writer and nity, with its smiling, muscular figures, standing, with hindsight. The speaker reviewer, is currently studying medieval history seems at first glance to be out of place. in Robert Hayden's "Those Winter at Oiford University. Yet the painting supplies human figures Sundays," for instance, grieves that he to connect by association with the un­ didn't thank his father for waking up Mary Lou Burket's book reviews have named "thousands" sold on the auction early on his day off to heat the house appeared in Publishers Weekly, The Five block, while the poem voices the history and polish shoes, responsibilities des­ Owls, and other publications. that underlies the joy of the painting's cribed as "love's austere and lonely Lee Galda, coauthor o/Literature and the thriving community. Later in the book, offices." Yet he also acknowledges that Child, is a professor ofchildren's literature at Clifton's poem "listen children," a decla­ he woke "fearing the chronic angers of the University ofMinnesota. She lives in ration that "always I all ways I we loved that house." This anthology succeeds Minneapolis with her husband and children. us," is paired with William H. Johnson's because it makes room for such whole, assemblage of key figures and incidents complicated visions. Krystyna Poray Goddu is the author ef related to the Underground Railroad. -Jessica Roeder A Celebration of Steiff: Timeless Toys for Today (Portfolio Press) and coauthor efThe Doll by Contemporary Artists (Abbeville Press). She lives in New York City.

Antonia Gray is a graduate student of children's literature at the University of Reading, England.

Nathalie op de Beeck writes about children's books for Publishers Weekly and other publications.

Jessica Roeder's writing has appeared in the Threepenny Review, The American Poetry Review, and other publications.

Jenny Sawyer, a former editorial intern at the Riverbank Review, is currently a student at Bryn Mawr College.

Susan Marie Swanson is the author eftwo books for children, Letter to the Lake and Getting Used to the Dark (both DK Ink). She reads and writes poems with children in her work as a visiting poet in schools.

Renee Victor is a.freelance writer based in Minnesota. A former teacher, she writes about children's literature for a variety ofpublication s.

Sharecropper, by Elizabeth Catlett,.from Words with Wings

59 Riverbank Review

1 one for the sbe\f

Following recent incidents of gun vio­ Warriors Don't Cry Who were the perpetrators of this vio­ lence in American high schools, atten­ By Melba Patillo Beals lence? White classmates and their par­ tion has focused on the destructive pres­ 312 pages, Age 12 and up ents who favored segregation; city resi­ sures brought on by cliques and the peer dents who crowded around the school W ASH INGTON SQUARE PRESS I POCKET BOOKS ostracism that seems to be a rite of pas­ to yell racist insults and threats and to paperback: $12.00 sage for many young people. warriors wave posters bearing racist sentiments. ISBN 0-671-86639-7 Don't Cry is a book that should put most State and city officials-and school teenagers' sense of isolation or "outsider" administrators-also played a role, con­ status into sobering perspective. We doning violence by turning their backs have most of us been teased and left out, on both the incidents and their own and felt the sting of cruel or thoughtless responsibilities, refusing to ensure the words. But the experiences of the black safety of these students. children who stepped forward in the late The black community was divided: 1950s and early 1960s to integrate all­ to some the "Little Rock Nine" were heroes; white schools (most famously in New to others they were troublemakers. Some Orleans, and in Melba Patillo Beals's were worried about losing their jobs or o 0 home of Little Rock) stand beyond what becoming, by association, targets of vio- t: many of us can imagine, let alone claim lence themselves. These weren't idle wor- J2 as our expenence. ries. Melba's mother, one of the first blacks ~ Beals's memoir begins with this pow­ to integrate the University of Arkansas, erful statement: "In 1957, while most teen­ was pressured by her boss to withdraw age girls were listening to Buddy Holly's Melba Patillo (/eji) with classmate Melba from school, under the threat of 'Peggy Sue,' watching Elvis gyrate, and Thelma Mothershed losing the teaching job she had held for collecting crinoline slips, I was escaping fourteen years. From the first day Melba the hanging rope of a lynch mob, dodging lighted sticks of walked up the steps of Central High, she gradually became dynamite, and washing away burning acid sprayed into my isolated from her old friends and social life. Even those who eyes." It's hard to read those words without recoiling, or try­ admired what she was doing began to seem like people liv­ ing to soften the descriptions by imagining a more nuanced ing in another universe. Her story is, in part, one of great context: surely it wasn't quite that bad; after a rough begin­ loneliness. ning, things must have improved ... This would be an exhausting book to read if it weren't for What is eye-opening, even for readers with some knowl­ Beals's astonishing spirit. As she describes the support she edge of this era, is the unrelenting nature of the violence received from her Grandma India, a woman of fierce deter­ Beals describes. It continued without letup for weeks and mination and strong religious faith, it becomes apparent months on end, making the lives of the targeted children a that Melba has inherited these same qualities. The morning living hell. No place was safe. School classrooms, stairwells, after someone has shot through the windows of the Beals's hallways, and bathrooms were all sites of abusive pranks. house, Grandma India is up early, tacking up pictures to Melba and the other eight students who integrated Little cover the bullet holes in the walls. When Melba can't help Rock's Central High had to be escorted to school by armed but cry out in anguish, her grandma tells her that she has to guards, and, for a time, in army vehicles. Though efforts be strong, that she can't let her tormentors see her pain, but were made to keep students' home addresses and phone that she can "talk to God about it." Melba does just that, in numbers private, gunshots came through the living room the journal that becomes her outlet and the main record windows of Melba's home, and at night she received anony­ from which this important book is derived. mous death threats on the phone. -Martha Davis Beck

60 I I' f I l I I I I ••• I I

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'• I 0-439-27 99-1 • $16.95 * ''What Copland created with ~usic, and HApper created with paint, iliesse deftly aftd unerringly creates with words: the iconograph~ of Americaha, carefully ~earched, beautffully written, and profounll!y honesL"1; rkus Revi~w s*, starred Ire view * ''Based on real events, Hesse tells a story of ~he Ku Klux :Klan in a sm town in VI rmont in 1924. She tells it in the same c1eai1 free-verse s le as her Ne~bery winne , Out of the ust . . . ·

disc~ion about how such a thin1 could happ n on your stteet."-Boof1ist, starred r view 1 I www.sc olastic.coj 1 I 1 rr 1 • I (• S C H 0 L A S T I C ·i Av~i l able Wher ver Books Ne Sold. I Scholastic Press--=:- 1 I • PRSRT STD Riverbank Review U.S. Postage PAID Riverbank Minneapolis. MN 55403 Review