A PROFILE OF TOVE JANSSON ~R.iver b an kR ev1ew . ~~~Ill"'.~ ---~ - ~~ -- _;;;---===----~ of books fot Young -readers

History Happens By Richard Peck

INTERVIEW: Chris Crutcher

Ten Great Bedtime Books

The Wishing Bone By Kate.DiCamillo

THE TEACHER'S ART: Artificial Intelligence

PLUS ~ New Books for Winter

WINTER 2001- 2002 1 4 >

0 74470 94662 5 $5.95 US $7.95 CAN ''Practically purr-feet."*

SHOOTING FOR THE MOON The Amazing Life and Times of Annie Oakley Stephen Krensky Pictures by Bernie Fuchs "Does a good job of relating the highlights of the sharpshooter's intrinsically interesting life and setting them in historical perspective . .. A fine introduction to a fascinating and resourceful woman." -School Library Journal $17.00 I 0-374-36843-0 I Ages 5-8 Melanie Kroupa Books

MOLLY AND THE MAGIC WISHBONE Barbara McClintock * "A Victorian setting and a family of IS MY FRIEND AT HOME? kittens dressed in Kate Greenaway attire Pueblo Fireside Tales are only part of the charm of this fairy tale, John Bierhorst loosely based on a story by Charles Pictures by Wendy Watson Dickens ... Practically purr-feet." * "This delightful and unusual collection - *Starred, Booklist of trickster tales ... with their lively $16.00 I 0-374-34999-1 I Ages 3-6 dialogue, colorful expressions and Frances Foster Books understated humor . . . will be wonderful to read aloud and to discuss." - Starred, Kirkus Reviews $16.00 I 0-374-33550-8 I Ages 4 up

CIRCUS GIRL Tomek Bogacki * "[In) this quiet story of friendship . .. the pictorial sequences capture the ethereal magic of a carnival, personified in an intriguing stranger." - Starred, Publishers Weekly $17.00 I 0-374-31291-5 I Ages 4 up Frances Foster Books

9 MAGIC WISHES Shirley Jackson Pictures by Miles Hyman * "Luminous pastels by Jackson's grandson breathe life into this haunting 1963 tale . . . Jackson's poetic scenes and Hyman's visual imagination provide the FARRAR• STRAUS real wizardry here.'' - Starred, Publishers Weekly GIROUX $16.00 I 0-374-35525-8 I Ages 4 up Illust ration by Barbara McClintock from Molly and the Magic Wishbone Winter 2001-2002

contents

Essays ~ History Happens ...... 8 By Richard Peck

The Wishing Bone ...... 14 By Kate DiCamillo

Original Kin ...... 21 About the Cover Art By Mary Lou Burket I live on a small hill farm in Vermont. After a fresh fall of snow, Reviews the woods that surround my home ~ become silent and mysterious. The New Books for Winter ...... 26 deer, confined by the storm to their "deer yard," slip down to the stream for a drink. When the full moon Features shines on the new snow it is almost ~ as bright as day. The moonlight the trees PROFILE ToveJansson ...... 4 casts bold shadows from By Christine Alfano on the snow. The stars glitter in the dark sky. It is a moment of magic

EXCERPT The Kerlan Awards and wonder. in Children's Literature: 1975-2001 ...... 10 -Mary Azarian

BOOKMARK Ten Great Bedtime Books ...... 13 Mary Azarian is the illustrator ofmany books for young readers, including the THE TEACHER'S ART Artificial Intelligence ...... 17 Caldecott Medal-winning Snowflake By Lee Galda Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), When the A POEM FOR WINTER ''The Snow Woman" ...... 19 Moon Is Full, by Penny Pollack (Little, by Deborah Keenan Brown, 2001), and The Race of the Berkebeiners, by Lise Lunge-Larsen INTERVIEW Chris Crutcher ...... 23 (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). Azarian's By Deb Kruse-Field woodcuts eloquently chronicle ayear in rural Vermont in The Four Seasons of ONE FOR THE SHELF Molly Bang's The Paper Crane ...... 56 Mary Azarian (David Godine, 2000). By Susan Marie Swanson Riverbank Review

Editor Martha Davis Beck Art Direction Kristi and Scott Anderson Two Spruce Design Contributing 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 Web Site Manager Mary Beth Suihkonen

Riverbank Review is grateful to the following individuals for their advice and support 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. The Legend ofWingz Winter 2001-2002Nolume TV, Number 4 Timothy Green Copyright © 2001 by Riverbank Review. 1-5 7174-275-1. $17.95 All rights reserved. Hardcover Please direct correspondence to: Riverbank Review 1624 Harmon Place, Suite 305 Minneapolis, MN 55403 Phone: (612) 486-5690 HAMPTON ROADS E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (866) 261-6729 PUBLISHING C 0 M PAN Y, INC. Web site: www.riverbankreview.com 1-800-766-8009 www.hrpub.com Riverbank Review (ISSN 1099-6389) is published quarterly, in March, June, September, and December. Subscriptions are $22.95 for one year, $37.95 for two years (in Canada: $32.95 for one year, $52.95 for two years).

2 Winter 2001-2002

editors note

Occasional moodiness notwithstanding, I'm an optimist. It's v1s10n that emanate from those working creatively in the my habit to look ahead with a feeling of hopefulness. This field of children's literature. Just as the shapes of objects anticipation is intimately connected to the seasons for me, seem sharper in cold air, the words of wise, reflective people and the season just around the comer has a glow that some­ seem to stand out especially clearly right now. I feel more how isn't diminished as the years go by: the sound of trick­ than usually grateful to listen. ling water under melting snow makes me feel like dancing, -Martha Davis Beck and I'm almost unreasonably excited to put on a corduroy shirt on the first cool morning of fall. Acknowledgments All that hopefulness slid away on the 11th of September. It wasn't something I felt like mentioning; in comparison to Publication of Riverbank Review is made possible in part by grants from the Hawley Foundation and the Minnesota Humanities the losses borne by others, it seemed a small, even selfish Commission. The magazine also wishes to acknowledge the con­ complaint. Yet, like millions who were safely distant from tributions of individual donors to the Riverbank Review Transition the events on that day, I felt as if something had collapsed Fund. Contributors between August 29 and November 30, 2001, inside me. In the weeks since, looking ahead to the future has include: Diane Allan, Sindri Anderson, Elizabeth Askey, Elizabeth Bernstein, Anne Bowen, Gwen Vor Broker, the Byrne family, been like looking at a picture that's missing something invis­ Betty Anne Carter, Barbara Cobb, Sarah N. Cummings, Wendy ible but essential. Though in our part of the country we've Davenport, Susan Duff, Alice Duggan, Margaret Faast, Carolynne been blessed with a long, colorful fall, the beauty of the sea­ Farrell, Carl Fertman, Joan Fitzgerald-Denny, Sharon L. Frank, son has offered little comfort. Nancy Fraser, Suzanne Fuoco, Karen Gilhooly, Karen L. Gillaspie, Cindy Gipple, Pam Higgins, Perhaps there are times when we need to have optimism Elizabeth Hinz, Sylvie Hossack, Sue and John Howes, Richard Jackson, Rose Jacobius, Debra Jefferson, and hope stripped away in order to examine what we believe Judith Kenney, Patricia Kirkpatrick, Barbara Knutson, Barbara and the foundation our beliefs rest on. Rebuilding a house Kuvshinoff, Sarah Lamstein, Renee Londner, Phyllis Mattill, Barbara gives one the opportunity to make it stronger. Mclaughin, Carrie Mercer, Marjorie Milde, Tunie Munson-Benson, In this issue of Riverbank Review, Richard Peck reflects on Deb Murphy, Patsy Oser, Linda M. Pannuto,Judith Park, Josephine Penberthy, Mary J. Petersen, Antonia Tate Pulich, Robin Pulver, this moment in the life of our culture, a moment when cer­ Paula ~int , Jessica Richards-Palmquist, Holly Rodin, Kathy Rogers, tain things we've long tried to ignore have crashed into our Adrienne M. Royden, Anne Sandbach, Cuttis and Candace Sawyer, consciousness, forcing us to confront them. His words are Therese Scheller, Pat Schmatz, Dorothy Schultz, Hope Slaughter­ bracing, and the challenge he poses is bold: as adults, we Bryant, Pam Small, Marian B. Sorensen, Gaylyn Stephenson, David and Lois Swanson, Mary Jane Urbanowicz, Betsy Wharton, need to better fulfill our responsibility to the children in our Susan Whitney, and Cathy Wilterding. lives. This may involve setting boundaries we're not in the habit of setting, but there may be more at stake than we're in Riverbank Review is a nonprofit, tax-exempt orga­ the habit of imagining. Chris Crutcher addresses this same nization. Contributions from individuals and challenge from a different angle, speaking as both a writer foundations help to cover the magazine's publi­ cation costs and support its circulation develop­ and a family therapist. If we won't listen to young people's ment. To make a contribution or to request fur­ stories, he says, if we refuse to look at the MINNESOTA pain and alienation HUMANITIES ther information contact the editor via e-mail at that make optimism a missing ingredient in so many young COMMISSION [email protected] or write to us at: lives, we will bear the cost of that unconcern. Riverbank Review Putting together this issue of the magazine, I was struck, 1624 Harmon Place, Suite 305 not for the first time, by the heart and imagination and Minneapolis, MN 55403

3 Riverbank Review

Tove Jansson

This Finnish author gained worldwide acclaim as the architect of Moominvalley. By Christine Alfano

oomms, those slightly rotund, hippo-snouted crea­ tures who enjoy pancakes and strawberry jam for sup­ M per, speak human language, and possess enviably soft white pelts, are the original inhabitants of Tove Jansson's fantastic tales, told in a series of eight novels, one collection of short stories,

three picture books, and countless car­ and Signe's paintings adorned its walls. toon strips. Maps of Moominvalley At night, Tove sometimes awakened to and its surrounding landscapes head hear her father playing his balalaika at the first chapter in some of the novels, house parties that could last for days. but you'll never reach the place by She grew up in the shadow of plaster studying the detailed drawings. To casts and sculptures, while pens, draw­ wander the byways of Jansson's keen ing pencils, paper, and bottles oflndia and vast imagination, to meet the ink were always close at hand. range of odd, intriguing (and terribly As a child, Jansson was infused human) characters within these pages, with an awareness of herself as a unique you must enter the stories themselves. individual with a sure visual sensibility. Once you do, you will declare yourself In her impressionistic memoir, Sculp­ a citizen of Moominvalley and call the tor's Daughter, she describes her child­ stories your own-the Moomin world hood surroundings as they Tove Jansson in 1950 is that compelling. A generous appeared to her when capacity to marvel at our own she was a girl. The fun- The table is the most beautiful world grounds and defines Jans­ ily dinner table set thing. Sometimes I sit up and son's work. for a party is some­ look over the railing and screw up Tove Jansson was born in thing to study and my eyes and then the glasses and 1914 in Helsinki into the rich­ remember: the candles and all the things on the table shimmer and make a ly creative household that whole as they do in a painting. would shape her artistic Making a whole is very important. outlook: her father was the Some people just paint things and renowned Finnish sculp­ forget the whole. tor Viktor Jansson; Signe HammerstenJansson, Tove's Also in her memoir, Jansson Swedish mother, worked I describes a pivotal incident that oc- as an illustrator, book ~ ed one summer, with her designer, and cartoonist. beloved housekeeper Annie. Bookcases lined the rooms They are visiting a beach ofthe Janssons' studio home, "where all the pebbles are

4 Winter 2001-2002 round and preoous and beautiful emerge, rendered in swift, rounded ink colours." Annie asks Tove if she can see lines, with great curving noses, large, any gold in the water, and when young expressive eyes and eyebrows, and plump Tove can find none, Annie tells her bodies similar to ripened pears. Though that it must be put there first-"Gold other creatures make their appear­ looks wonderful in brown water. It mul­ ances, these are the anchoring charac­ tiplies." Tove runs home to fetch every ters inJansson's novels; Moominmam­ gold thing they own "and the pearls as ma, Moorninpappa, and Moornintroll well" and tosses them all into the water are the soft, quiet emotional vessels in where they look "terribly beautiful." a world full of bizarre, whimsical, and The next day, when they return to see if sometimes frightening beings. the gold has grown, it is gone. As an Jansson's greatest achievement was adult, Jansson realizes that Annie stole her ability to conceive an array of the jewelry. At the time, however, it imaginary-yet oddly familiar- crea­ wasn't her concern-Tove the child Snork Maiden and the Fillyjonk,from tures that come fully to life on the page. had witnessed the transformation of Moominsummer Madness Who hasn't encountered a Hemulen or the ordinary into the extraordinary. two in life? These taller, elongated ver­ The significance of the experience lay Helsinki, where solo exhibitions of her sions of Moomins are the world's in seeing how the brownish water made paintings received critical acclaim. She pontificators, rule makers, and project the jewelry even more lovely. seemed to embrace her father's philos­ planners. One Hemulen focuses so Years later, writing Moominsummer ophy of life: "You can make fun of single-mindedly on rearranging his Madness, Jansson would call up that everything except art." stamp collection that he doesn't no­ scene once again. Moominmamma dips So where and when did Moomins tice a tornado whizzing past. Another her nose into the pond to see its bottom emerge? One story maintains that the won't stop trying to get Moomintroll and spots the bright glint of metal: very first drawing of a Moominlike fig­ interested in the healthy practices of ure was the ugly little creature Tove skiing and igloo building. ''I want fresh "It's your golden bracelet," painted on the wooden planks of their air, and lots of it," he says. "Believe me: said Moomintroll. .. . "Good idea, family's privy. She began to include isn't it?" there's nothing more ~ changing versions of Moomins in the dangerous in life 1 "' "Splendid," said his mother. . , ~ "We'll always keep our bangles in work she did for Garm. But it wasn't than to become an 0 brown pond water in the future. until the anxious and debilitating years indoor sitter." They're so much more beautiful of World War II that Jansson turned Little My, an ad­ ~ that way." her energies toward writing and illus- opted daughter of the ~ trating a children's book. Moomin family, is the stubborn, scowl­ From childhood, Tove Jans­ 1~ In 1945 the first Moomin ing little girl in all of us . So tiny when she son illustrated her diaries book, The Little Trolls and the first appears that she has to be seen from cover to cover. The am­ Great Flood, was published. through a magnifying glass, Little My is bitious, savvy student sold In their original incarna­ all unabashed curiosity, a small ball of to her classmates magazines tion, Moomintrolls had long energy with a bomb-shaped bun stick­ that she wrote, illustrated, and snouts and visible mouths. ing up on top of her head. Wary of oth­ edited herself. By the time she Though these early Moomins ers, yet utterly self-assured, she has the turned fifteen, she was regularly are obviously related to their nerve to ruthlessly pour paraffin over an contributing cartoons to the cul­ more fully developed kin, Jansson ant colony that Moomin­ tural and political magazine l initially seemed unable to t{~~ troll has complained about. Garm. She chose to train as an illustra­ visually express the ' • Afterwards, she berates tor and designer and was later admitted remarkable person­ him for thinking she to the drawing school at the Finnish alities ofher creations. could get rid of the Art Society, graduating in 1937. After But in her next novel, stinging insects without traveling to Paris and Brittany to con­ Comet in Moominland, killing them: "You knew tinue her studies, Jansson returned to Jansson's Moornins fully exactly what I was going

5 Riverbank Review to do to them! All you hoped was that I scurries out of her way). Moomintroll ing, exploration, and the adventures shouldn't tell you about it." faces his own fear of her in Moomin­ regularly offered by ocean storms were And don't we all know at least one pappa at Sea, meeting her secretly at the the main occupations. Jansson had the pretentiously philosophical Muskrat? ocean's edge and allowing her to observant eye of a natu­ Lying about in the hammock all day become entranced by his swinging d1.~f7;;.~. ralist. Although the bi­ • /I ~ long, reading a lengthy tome called The lantern. The Groke proves to be a '1.·: • ~ zarre interiors of h/~ . :17 Meaninglessness of Everything, this crea­ more troublesome foe than the _,,..~~~t' 'f.'11;,~ Moominhouses are ture is full of bloated self-importance /lf'tttllil'/J&lW) U/11 elaborated in care­ and expects to be waited on. After ful, appreciative de­ obliviously sitting down on Moom­ tail, she set the introll's lovely "Welcome Home" cake, action of most of Muskrat tries to defend himself, assert­ her stories outdoors. ing, "I don't bother myself over things One could almost like cakes. I don't see them, taste them, use the later Moomin or feel them in any way, ever." novels as a travel There are too many wonderful guide to the rocky characters in Moominland Finnish shoreline. to describe-Jansson creat­ For much of ed more than sixty of her later life, Jansson lived in them in her novels, and a small house on an island off the each is so clearly drawn, so ati;:~­ Finnish coast with her great friend artfully differentiated from Tuulikki Pietila. She garnered numer­ the others, and endowed ous awards for her work, including the with such recognizably Selma Lagerli:if Award in 1953 and human characteristics that 1992 and the Hans Christian Ander­ we feel we know them more realistically. When Moom­ sen Children's Book Medal in 1966. and are happy when introll wakes from hibernation to Her books, originally written in they reappear in experience a snowfall for the first Swedish, were loved throughout the other volumes. One addi­ time, Jansson captures his awe: world and have been translated into tional creature, however, more than thirty languages. Jansson bears mention for her dark- One flake after the other landed stopped writing Moomin stories in ly alien and utterly mesmerizing pres­ on his warm nose and melted 1970: "I couldn't continue," she said. "I away. He caught several in his paw ence. The lighter, celebratory aspects of couldn't go back and find that happy to admire them for a fleeting Jansson's stories would not achieve Moominvalley again." She died in moment; he looked towards the their brightness without the forbidding sky and saw them sinking down at 2001 at the age of eighty-six. and lonesome presence of the Groke. him, more and more, softer and If we can find the soul of an artist Huge and black with perpetually wide lighter than bird's down. "Oh, it's within her work, we know that Jansson open bright-yellow eyes and a teeth­ like this," thought Moomintroll. had a reverence for family, for individ­ baring grimace, the Groke is attracted "I believed it simply formed ual freedom, for nature, and for the to light and moves across any terrain on the ground somehow." entire range of humanity represented to find it and gaze at it. The in her characters. When Moomin­ ground she passes over pappa remembers his childhood and freezes solid, and noth- The landscapes that says "I was permanently astonished," ing can ever grow surrounded Jansson pro­ we sense that Tove Jansson maintained there again. Whether vided the raw material a way to marvel at the world. Her pic­ the Groke sym­ for Moominvalley. Sum­ tures and stories extend to readers that bolizes death or ex­ mers took the family capacity for astonishment. -=- treme loneliness, to their island home she is avoided by off the coast of Fin­ Christine Alfa.no lives with her family in Min­ all (even plant life land where beachcomb- neapolis.

6 * Publishers Weekly * The Hom Book * School Library joumal * Kirkus Reviews * Publishers Weekly * School library joumal

Mr. Putter & Tiibby f

~ A rtl•otr H-~ "'0 * Book/isl .;,"' * Kirkus Reviews * Kirkus Reviews * Kirkus Reviews 6 * The Hom Book library journal * Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *6---- School * Book/isl * Publishers Weekly journal * School library Publishers Weekly Boston Globe-Hom Book * 2001 Fiction

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525 B Streel, Suile 1900, San Diego, California 921 O I 15 East 26th Street, New York, New York 10010 Riverbank Review

History Happens

In the wake ofSeptember 11, perhaps the best thing parents can do for their children is to start acting like parents again. By Richard Peck

n Saturday, September 8, my sister and I breakfasted at group leader. All American stories the White House in a wonderful gathering of writers: derive from the same journey: two boys on a raft making their way down Patricia and Fredrick McKissack; David McCullough, 0 the mythic American river, a voyage the biographer ofJohn Adams; Scott Turow; Natalie Babbitt and that changes its meaning in midstream, Katherine Paterson; John Scieszka, the Stinky Cheese Man; Gail like life. In Fair Weather, Lottie, Rosie, their Godwin and Doris Kearns Goodwin; tory has redefined us. In his new book, little brother Buster, and their repro­ Patricia Maclachlan, the creator of Thirty Days in Sydney, Peter Carey says, bate granddad leave the farm to visit Sarah, Plain and Tall. I was the only one "History is like a bloodstain that keeps the World's Columbian Exposition, in the room I didn't recognize. showing on the wall, no matter how many the great Chicago World's Fair of 1893. We now have our first librarian new owners take possession, no matter They who have never seen a lightbulb First Lady-a working librarian, in fact, how many times we paint over it." will witness the great White City expo­ conducting the first National Book Now history has overtaken us. It's a sition blazing brighter than noon. Festival on that September weekend. new epoch when even filmmakers They who have never gone faster than From the White House we went to are in sudden search of "family" sto­ a horse gallops will go on the train. the Capitol lawn where parents and ries. They'll get over that, but as it hap­ They pack a lunch, but they're not sure their children, readers of all ages, could pens, we were ready with move from tent to tent, hearing family stories all along. authors read from their works. Hun­ A story for the young is dreds were expected; thousands came. always about family or It was the way the world should be. the search for family or Three days later, that world ended. the creation of a surro­ History happened. In the aftermath of gate family. the attack, Mrs. Bush was still before My latest contribu­ us, on radio, on television, on Oprah, tion is called Fair Weather, exhorting us to be there for our chil­ and now I'm jarred my­ dren. She urged us to read to them self by its opening line: even if they think they're too old to be "It was the last day of our read to: "Let them hear your voice old lives, and we didn't before they go to sleep." even know it." This advice is, of course, for parents It's the story of a who live under the same roofs as their journey. There's a jour­ children. This refers to the child who's ney in every one of my at home on a school night, the child books, a trip out into the who has a bedtime. world to learn some­ We who don't ask our children to thing you couldn't learn define history find, abruptly, that his- at the feet of your peer- Ferris wheel at the Chicago World's Fair, 1893

8 Winter 2001-2002

they can eat at this speed. They who do for our own, we who are still here. liquor and the gasoline in that lethal have never seen a building taller than a Our children have now seen pic­ cocktail, what a meaningful moment to silo will ride history's first Ferris wheel. tures of people falling and jumping serve notice on your college student The curtain rose famously on the from exploding buildings, some of them that you are underwriting no more keg twentieth century at the Chicago World's holding hands. Now it is surely time to parties, however deeply buried this item Fair. How differently the twenty-first ask our children to reassess their taste may be in the budget of necessities. century has begun. Yet history repeats, for video games, which are the pornog­ The drug traffic that funds many and we need to point that out to people raphy of the prepubescent, a violent tyrants flourishes in all our schools, par­ so young they have not yet seen the virtual reality that eliminates the par­ ticularly in the schools of the affluent repetition. The real motive behind the ent who paid for it. who can afford to support it. As parents 1893 fair was to inform the nation that It's time for parents to reassess their we underwrite a traffic we're too fearful Chicago had been rebuilt from the willingness to pay for all this electronic to mention. Is it possible that our children great fire of 1871-bigger, better, and mayhem, even at the risk of incurring misinterpret our silence for indifference? more businesslike than ever. A hundred our children's displeasure. When life makes us start over, I need and eight years later, Mayor Giuliani of We're told now of children lying to write a verse, to gather the sprawling New York says, "Do you want to help? awake at night, fearing an airplane will world upon a single page: Come visit us. Bring money. Come see hit the school tomorrow. That's a fear to a show." anguish any parent, but for every child September 11 History repeats, but our young peo­ lying awake in bed, there are any num­ ple learn very little history and geogra­ ber of teenagers driving drunk because We thought we'd outdistanced phy in school and college now. It's hard they believe they cannot die. Statistics history, to teach history in a suburb that doesn't say that six thousand teenagers will die Told our children it was nowhere near; have any. It's hard to teach geography in of drunk driving next year. Suddenly, Even when history struck Columbine, a ghetto that recognizes no territory that six-thousand number has new It didn't happen here. beyond this turf. meaning for us. When danger strikes, we reach for our What a fitting way to honor the We took down the maps in the children. In the names of those thou­ dead, by refusing to collude in our chil­ classroom, sands of children who lost their parents dren's self-destructiveness. What a good And when they were safely furled, on September 11, we wonder what we can time for parents to stop paying for the We told the young what they wanted to hear, that they were immune from a menacing world.

But history isn't a folded-up map, Or an unread textbook tome; Now we know history's a fireman's child, Waiting at home alone.

0 0 0ung Readers.

This essay is excerpted from an address given at the Upper Midwest Booksefkrs Association conven­ Site of World Trade Center tragedy, New >0rk City, 2001 tion in St. Paul, Minnesota, October 7, 2001.

9 Riverbank Review

The Kerlan Awards in Children's Literature: 1975-2001 Edited by Ruth Berman

n 1949, Irvin Kerlan, an avid book coll ector, donated a portion of his enced by that. The stage sets, the cos­ children's literature library to the University of Minnesota. The remain­ tumes, the illusion. I'm probably try­ der of his collection was bequeathed to the university at his death in ing to recreate that in books. That's 1963. This generous donation of books, manuscripts, why I have used a lot of "break­ I throughs" of buildings, seeing artwork, and letters has been built upon, and the J Kerlan Collection is now one of the most compre- l them from the outside and hensive children's literature archives in the world. '-t the inside at once. And why I Since 1975 the Kerlan Friends have given an "v~ ~-llllllloJ• always want the people I annual award to recognize "singular attainment draw to have real contact in the creation of children's literature and in with each other, and be appreciation for generous donation of unique doing more than just resources to the Kerlan Collection for the study standing around on the of children's books." The following excerpts page together. are from an anthology of acceptance speeches by Kerlan Award recipients, supplemented by Eve Bunting biographical information, manuscripts, art­ My father was a rough, ~ work, and related materials. 6 tough Irishman who had ~ . Margot Zemach a secret passion-for poetry. Only my mother Looking back at my work in children's much information on every level as and I were allowed to know books is always a pleasure and still possible. I get so tired of seeing folk of this passion. If any of his rough, feels unexpected. As a child, I loved or fairy tales set in amorphous coun­ tough, brawling, brawny friends had looking at the picture books I had, so trysides, with pudgy cottages, tarted found out about his hidden love he much. I looked and looked at them. up Disney World castles, and a cast of would have been the laughingstock of Once I was given a picture book of a "types" wearing vaguely medieval the townland. Real men read gangster Russian folktale that blazed with color clothes. Illustrations like that don't novels or tales of cowboys riding and fairly lifted off the page, and do anything for a story. They don't those far off ranges in America. My made the walls of my room glow. tell us anything new about the story, father, a real man if ever there was Drawing and painting, mainly scenes or the time, or the world. one, read Longfellow and Shakespeare from folk or fairy tales, was an impor­ I used to think that I would reach and Wordsworth. tant way to keep myself company a certain age and bingo! I would He read poetry aloud to me. He when I was a kid. I had a certain con­ achieve techniques that would make it made it live. He made it sing. When I fusion about reality ... What was real clear sailing, and I would automatical­ was little I'd sit on his knee and he'd and what I could make real by drawing ly be able to say whatever I wanted. read to me of Hiawatha, or the sad, it. The problem is still with me ... But I guess that's not such a desirable lovesick Highway Man, or the horrors I usually do a lot of research state anyhow. The demands of each of the Ancient Mariner, doomed to before beginning a book. I find out story are so different that it is just vital sail on and on forever. Instinctively he whatever I can about a particular to keep changing all the time ... knew that poems that told stories country before I illustrate a story set Both of my parents worked in the would be the ones to hold my interest. there. The feel of the place, and as theater and I'm probably very influ- He'd taste the words like they were

10 Winter 2001-2002 honey. I've forgotten too many things tant hills and remembered what I had golden in winter, across to high ground about him. He died when I was four­ left behind me: fashion drawings­ on the other side. One of the two librar­ teen. But I remember his voice. I hear those anemic females with eyes too ians, whose names I've forgotten but it when I read Yeats: big, with mouths and hands and feet whose look and sweet smell (a com­ too small, with stilts on their heels, pound of baby powder, Noxzema, and I will arise and go now, for always with gloves on their hands and furs ambergris) will be with me until I die, night and day around their necks in summer! checked me out. As I waited, I stared I hear lake water lapping with low I reveled in my freedom now, but through the invisible bars into the sounds by the shore; what would I do in the fall, and the adults' room, hungering for what was While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray next year, and the next? I had deliber­ denied me there. I would have to wait I hear it in the deep heart's core. ately burned all my commercial art for years, until Mother wrote me a let­ bridges behind me and I certainly had ter of dispensation when I was eleven I have been to the Lake Isle of no expectation of turning my sum­ and a year too young, according to the Innisfree and heard that lake water mer's work into cash. Still, that is what rules, to enter the inner sanctum. Now lapping with low sounds by the shore. happened. young children can encounter the most There is a tape of William Butler Yeats depraved, horrific imagery by touch­ reading this poem but he doesn't read Jane Resh Thomas ing a few computer buttons, but in it as well as my father. those days mothers and the Washing­ At the far end of Washington Square, ton Square librarians had charge of Wanda Gag beyond the dogleg corner, was my des­ their daughters' passage from child­ tination: the Washington Square hood to maturity. As soon as I felt I could risk it, I aban­ Library, my destiny, my second home. doned my commercial art career and Through the Gothic door with the lit­ Jean Craighead George prepared for my next step. tle leaded window, the vestibule was I said to myself: "I've expressed blessedly cool and half-dark. I drew in By definition, nature writing is "a poet­ other people's ideas long enough ... satisfaction with the air. I could smell ic interpretation of nature with a scien­ now I'll express my own. Whether or my sweaty hair and the damp-stone tific point of view." I can write about not anyone else will like what I do is scent of the slate floor. I could drink the wild orchestra on a June night, but not important. I'll draw things the way cold water from the fountain. In a it better not have any cicadas in it they look and feel to me!" moment, I could enter the treasure because they do not sing until August. I rented a little house in the coun­ trove, Ali Baba's den of riches, where Nature writing took hold and try and furnished it with packing the same books that kings and queens thrived in America. A pristine wilderness boxes, a few lamps and secondhand read, the same words that Homer had inspired the first American nature writer, chairs, and a most uncomfortable bed. sung thousands of years ago and William Barton .... [He] brought poetry I was very happy in this setup. In a Shakespeare had written with a feather to science and influenced two hundred frenzy of freedom I drew the simple in his hand, when the great Qieen years of writers including Henry David objects about me-trees, flowers Elizabeth wore velvet dresses and ruffs Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and, and weeds, lush fields and bare interi­ around her neck-some of the same many years later, Rachel Carson. ors, barns and woodpiles, squashes, books and words were waiting now for My great joy is to bring this genre dishmops, anything! Everything me. I could share this inheritance with to children. They are the perfect audi­ seemed to say: "Why not draw me? other readers; here I was equal to the ence for poetry and natural science. I'm so neatly put together. I'm a cheap rich and the happy and the beloved. I What child does not thrill at the sight lamp, but what I do to a room can be savored the prospect, drinking more of a rabbit or a turtle? What child does fearful or cheerful .... I'm an old hoe, water than I needed, prolonging deli­ not sit still when you read aloud: "A see my noble crooked lines .... I'm a cious anticipation. large grizzly bear opened her eyes and hillside, I unfold myself to you as a Once inside, I chose deliberately, got to her feet. She was hungry." -=- symphony. I'll never look just like this calculating how many books I could again-better capture me now!" carry. I never failed to look out the Excerptedfrom The Kerlan Awards in Children's Sometimes as I sat, barefoot and leaded windows over the marsh, where literature: 1975-2001, edited by Ruth Berman smudged with paint, I gazed at the dis- the tall grass blew green m summer, (Pogo Press, 2001).

11 "A beautiful demonstration of the true meaning of Christmas:'*

lyrics and music by KATHERINE DAV IS, HENRY ONORATI and H ARRY SIM EON E illustrated in full co lor by KRI STINA RO DAN AS

"The contemporary Christmas carol comes to life through marvelously detailed illustrations that depict the people and landscapes of the desert. The range of expressions in Rodanas's characters' faces and body language truly make this special." Illustrate•' by -Kirk11s Rrl'ltws KR1sr1 NA RooANAS

"When commercialism threatens to overtake the season, this song reminds readers that a gift from the heart brings great jo)' to both the giver and the receiver .... Even libraries that have Ezra Jack Keats's version may want this one for its fresh interpretation of Bethlehem, the humble stable, and the range of emotion expressed in the bor's face and demeanor." -Srhoof /.i/1rary Journal Ages5&up 0-395-97015-6 $15.00 * K1rku s Rrv1rws

CLARION BOOKS a Houghton Mif.!1111 Co111pa11y i111pri11t 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY. 10003 And If the Moon Could Talk By Kate Banks Illustrated by Georg Hallensleben FARRAR, STRAUS, & GIROUX, 1998

A GE 2 AND UP Poetic text and vivid paintings shift back and forth between a young girl's bedroom and scenes .from around the world, aU beneath a wondrous fuU moon.

Bedtime for Frances By Russell Hoban Illustrated by Garth Williams HARPER & Row, 1960

A GE 4 AND UP Frances, the inimitable precocious badger, runs through a humorous succession ofnighttime anxieties before finally settling down to sleep.

Can't Sleep By Chris Raschka ORCHARD, 1995

A GE 2 ANO UP Do you hate to be the last one in the house awake? Don't worry, says this rhythmic picture book, the moon will watch over you and "luep you safe.•

Good Night, Good Knight By Shelley Moore Thomas Illustrated by Jennifer Plecas DurroN, 2000

A GE 4 ANO UP The knight in this charming easy reader doesn't fight dragons. Instead, he gets them drinks ofwater, reads and sings to them, and doles out good-night kisses.

Hush! A Thai Lullaby By Minfong Ho Illustrated by Holly Meade ORCHARD, 1996

AGE 3 ANO UP Exquisite collage artwork illustrates the story of a harried mother trying to quiet all the animals that sum determined lo disrupt her baby's slumber. Hushabye By John Burningham KNOPF, 2001

AGE 1 AND UP W7iere will three tired bears, a weary fish, a fatigued goose, and others rest far the night? In en-chanting rhymed episodes, aO end up comfy-cozy.

Little Donkey, Close Your Eyes By Margaret Wise Brown Illustrated by Ashley Wolff HARPERCOUJNS, 1995 (NEWlY JlLUSTllAITD rnmoN)

AGE I AND UP Coupled with tranquil, lushly textured illus­ trations, Brown's singsong verse gently steers baby animals and small children toward sleep.

May We Sleep Here Tonight? By Tan Koide Ill ustrated by Yasuko Koide MCEIJ)ERRY, 2000 (REISSUE)

AGES 3 AND UP On a faggy night, three gophers, two rabbits, and three raccoons find refuge in a toasty cabin where no one is at home--yet.

Moonlight By Jan Ormerod loTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD, 1982 (OUT OF PRINT-CHECK YOUR LOCAL UBRARY)

ACF 2 AND UP T71is quiet, wordless masterpiece falknns a little girl and her parents.from suppertime onward through their evening routine.

Ten, Nine, Eight By Molly Bang GREENWJUOW. 1983

AGE I ANO UP Homey images convey the warmth and security ofa child's room in this soothing countdown to bedtime. Winter 2001-2002

Ten Great Bedtime Bool

And If the Moon Could Talk By Kate Banks Illustrated by Georg Hallensleben FARRAR, STRAU S, & GIROUX, 1998

AGE 2 AND U P Poetic text and vivid paintings shifi back and forth between a young girl's bedroom and s scenes from around the world, all beneath a ;g wondrous full moon. - ~ 2, Bedtime for Frances By Russell Hoban Illustrated by Garth Williams HARPER & Row, 1960 Hush! A Thai Lullaby May We Sleep Here Tonight? AGE 4 AND UP By Minfong Ho By Tan Koide Frances, the inimitable precocious badger, runs Illustrated by Holly Meade Illustrated by Yasuko Koide through a humorous succession ofnighttime ORCHARD, l 996 MCELDERRY, 2000 (REIS SUE) anxieties before finally settling down to sleep. AGE 3 AND UP AGE 3 AND U P Exquisite collage artwork illustrates the story On a foggy night, three gophers, two rabbits, Can't Sleep ofa harried mother trying to quiet all the ani­ and three raccoons find refuge in a toasty By Chris Raschka mals that seem determined lo disrupt her cabin where no one is at home-yet. ORCHARD, l 995 baby's slumber.

AGE 2 AND U P Moonlight Do you hate to be the last one in the house Hushabye By Jan Ormerod awake? Don 't worry, says this rhythmic pic­ By John Burningham LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD, l 982 (OUT OF PRINT--<:HECK YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY) ture book, the moon will watch over you and KNOPF, 2001 "keep you safe." AGE 2 AND UP AGE l AND UP Where will three tired bears, a weary fish, This quiet, wordless masterpiece follows a little Good Night, Good Knight a fatigued goose, and others rest far the night? In girl and her parents from suppertime onward By Shelley Moore Thomas enchanting rhymed episotks, through their evening routine. Illustrated by Jennifer Plecas an end up com.fY-coz;;. DurroN, 2000 Ten, Nine, Eight AGE 4 AND UP Little Donkey, Close Your Eyes By Molly Bang The knight in this charming ea~ reader By Margaret Wise Brown GREENWll.LOW, 1983 doesn'tfight dragons. Instead, he gets them Illustrated by Ashley Wolff AGE l AND UP drinks ofwaler, reads and sings to them, and HARl'ERCOWNS, 1995 {NEWLY ILLUSTRATED rnmoN) Homey images convey the warmth and doles out good-night kisses. AGE l AND UP security ofa child's room in this soothing Coupled with tranquil, lushly textured illustra­ countdown lo bedtime. tions, Brown's singsong verse gently steers baby animals and small children toward sleep.

13 Riverbank Review

The Wishing Bone

Writing is a conjuring act, mysterious at its core. By K ate DiC amillo

grew up in a small town in Florida. I spent a good portion of my bone was special) and desire (to childhood digging. I do not know, now, what I was digging for. impress the sophisticated Beverly Pagoda), I said, "It makes wishes come And even then, I if I had been questioned closely, I probably true." would have been at a loss to articulate exactly what I was hoping to find. "Right," said Beverly. "I'm sure." But whatever it was, I looked for it assiduously. I had my own shovel. "Really," I sa id. "Here." I held out the bone. She took it And every day I dug. At the time of "That's not ancient," he said. "That's from me. this story, I was eight years old and it not even a rock." "Put your thumb in that hole. And was summertime and my digging ''What is it then?" I asked . make a wish out loud and your wish mania was at its apex. One day, under "A bone." will come true," I said. the huge magnolia tree in our back­ "Do you think that maybe it's a "Oh, please," said Beverly. But she yard, I unearthed a rock. It was a white special kind of bone?" put her thumb in the hollow and with rock, worn smooth by time, and there "No." He opened up his magazine. her eyes wide open, staring straight at was an indentation in the center of it "I don't." me, she said, "I wish for a pony." that seemed to have been designed "Oh," I said. She blinked her eyes and then she specifically for the human thumb. But I was not convinced. made a big production out of turning I put my thumb into the hollow and I took the bone next door and her head, first to the right and then to took my thumb out, and I felt certain showed it to Beverly Pagoda. the left. She looked around the yard that somebody, many other people per­ "Look," I told her, "I have found an and out in the street and down the hill; haps, had done the same thing before ancient, magical bone." finally, with a sarcastic flourish, she me. I was moved in a way that I could Beverly Pagoda was ten years old turned and looked behind her, peering not explain to myself. All I knew was and her mother (in what my mother into the Pagoda carport. that I had found something special. referred to as "a mistake with long-term "Gee," she said, "that's funny. I took the rock inside and showed it consequences") allowed her to wear don't see a pony." to an expert: my older, rock-collecting makeup. Also, Beverly Pagoda owned a "Give it back," I said. brother. pair of white go-go boots with gold "Oh," she sa id, smirking, handing "Look," I said to him, "I have fringe tassels. I was forever trying to me the bone, "I guess it only works for found a very, very ancient rock." impress her; I had yet to succeed. you." Ancient seemed like exactly the "A magical bone?" Beverly Pagoda "Yes," I said. "It will work for me." right word to me, accurate, respectful, said with disdain, but she opened up And I believed it. and at the same time implying a great the screen door and stepped outside. It was summertime. I was eight mystery. She was wearing purple lipstick. My years old . My heart was a small motor My brother looked up from his heart clenched in jealousy. inside me, humming, whirring, eager magazine. "Let me see," he said. "Yes," I said, "magical." And then, to prove itself. I had faith, desperation. I handed him the rock. in a desperate leap born of imagination I believed in magic. He turned it over in his hand once, (mine was always working overtime) "Watch," I said. I held the bone in twice, and then handed it back to me. and belief (that something about the my hand. I put my thumb where it

14 Winter 2001-2002 seemed to belong. I closed my eyes. "I there, standing with his hat in his luck, through will power, through in­ wish for a pony," I said. I kept my eyes hands, waiting to take the pony (whose stinct, through defiance, through faith, closed. I listened to the small-appli­ name was Sir Alfred) back to the carni­ through something unknowable, inex­ ance whine of the crickets hidden in val from which he had escaped. plicable, magical, I had conjured some­ the bushes and the tall grass. Also, you will note that Beverly thing from nothing. I waited. And when I opened my Pagoda is not in the picture. She was And that is what writing is. eyes, I looked past Beverly Pagoda, standing to the right of the Penny There is always somebody who will down the hill, to where our street dead­ Family Amusement Troop man. Her tell you that you cannot (the Beverly ended into orange groves and honey­ arms were crossed and her lower, pur­ Pagodas of the world who try to work suckle vines and overgrowth. ple lip was sticking out. She was work­ magic and fail). There is always some­ "What's that?" I said to Beverly. ing herself up to a considerable fit of body who will insist that the thing that "What?" she said. rage: the bone, after all, had worked moves you is not special at all (my "That," I said. "There." brother). And, the world (the man "Where?" "There," I said. And pointed at the pony that was walking out of the orange It was summertime. groves, toward us. "A pony," whispered I was eight years old. Beverly. And then she shouted it: "A pony! A My heart was a small pony!" She ran down the hill screaming and whooping. motor inside me, hum­ I followed behind her, more slowly, holding the min!J, whirring, eager bone in my hand, stun­ ned, amazed, all-power­ to prove itse!f I had ful. I had called a pony into being. I had, finally, faith, desperation . impressed Beverly Pagoda. This is a true story. I believed in magic. You can ask my mother. She heard the shrieks and screams and came from the Penny Family outside, w1pmg her Kate DiCamillo, age eight Amusement Troop) will hands on a green-and-white checked always (in the shape of edi­ dish towel. for me, not for her. tors and critics and the reading public "Jesus Christ," she said. "It's a And the third thing you cannot see and your mother and prize commit­ pony." She went inside to get the cam­ is the bone itself It was there, however, tees) come to claim the story. It is era. When she came back outside, she curled in my right fist, resting in my never, really, yours. took a picture-this picture-of me sweating palm. But when it works, none of that sitting on the pony's back. And what is It would never work again. matters. When you find something (a in the picture and what is not sums up And what of the things you can see? word, a phrase, a name, a bone) worth most of what I know about the writing Well, there is me, atop the pony, tri­ wishing on, and when you believe in process. umphant, powerful. It did not matter the magic of that thing and close your First, let's talk about the things that to me that Beverly Pagoda was angry. It eyes and wish on it, and then suddenly are not visible, the unseen things stand­ did not matter that I knew already that where there was nothing (overgrowth, ing outside that square oflight. One of the bone would never work again. orange trees, a dead-end street, a disbe­ those things is the man from the Penny What mattered was this: somehow, liever) there rises a story (there comes a Family Amusement Troop. He was through sheer audacity, through dumb pony) real, alive, well, there is nothing

15 Riverbank Review

better in the world. Part of writing is what Raymond Carver called "being at your station," The lnoisible Child showing up daily for the work, in spite of your moods or your health or your ON READING AND WRITING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN belief that the seemingly fickle muse has passed you by or is perched else­ BY KATHERINE PATERSON where, on a more deserving writer's desk. You will find reference to this, the need to do your work in spite of every­ thing, in most manuals on writing.

lWO-TIME WLNNERo(r~ Part ofwriting is paying attention to NATIONAL BOOK AWARD mid th« NEWBERY MEDAL the world around you: listening to the gas station attendant's story of his wife's betrayal; noting the sound that the screen door on the Fluff-o-matic Laundromat makes when it wheezes shut; knowing when the moon sets and rises and what phase it is in. And you will find reference to this need to pay attention in manuals on writing. Part of writing is an understanding of the mechanics of story (narration and dialogue and transitions) and the /noisib/e basics of writing (punctuation, verb A.ND WRITING agreement, the elimination of dan­ gling participles). And you will find Child reference to all of these things in man­ uals on writing. What you will not find in writing manuals is a discussion of the central 0-525-46482-4 • $24.99 • Ages 10 up mystery of the whole undertaking, an acknowledgment that writing is some powerful amalgam, a potent stew of " ... a smart, enthusiastic response to the best children's ego and defiance and desperation and books, old and new and a stimulating discussion of what magic and faith. stories mean to kids ..• Teachers, librarians, parents, It is a pony walking up the hill out of and older students will want this." an orange grove. It is a bone. The weight of it in your hand. The feel of your -Booklist (Boxed review) thumb in its groove. The knowledge that what you hold in your hand is spe­ cial. It is a wish that comes true against all odds. And it is something that we will never fully understand.--=-

Kate Di Camillo is the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000), a Newbery Honor Book, and The Tiger Rising (200 /), a National Book Awardfinalist. Both books are published by Candlewick Press. This essay.first appeared in a slightly different form in A View from the Loft.

16 Winter 2001-2002 the teacher's art

Artificial Intelligence

Machine-scored tests won't turn students into book lovers. By Lee Galda

nee upon a time, children's books knew their place in success. Pressures like these tend to the classroom. Works ofliterature (as opposed to text­ nudge us toward packaged programs that take the delight out of reading. 0 books, which were used for "real" school work) were Some popular programs ask chil­ checked out of the library for children to read when they fin­ dren to select a book-usually a novel-from lists organized by reading ished their lessons, or when they had book reports due. "Story levels, read the book, and then take a books" sat on shelves behind the books in similar ways, to accomplish test. Computerized tests allow for easy teacher's desk and were brought out at their curricular goals. Children learn to and efficient accountability. We can special times, perhaps just after lunch, read and write, explore mathematical see how students are progressing by when the teacher read aloud. Some concepts, and study the physical world watching how they move up through books were smuggled into children's through such books. Best of all, they are the reading levels. Library use goes up as desks and read in surreptitious peeks experiencing fine literature. Sounds students go to the library to check out when the teacher's back was turned. wonderful, doesn't it? books, and we see students reading lit­ But that was once upon a time, and Unfortunately, it's not that simple. erature that they have selected on their that time isn't now. Too often, children's books are used in own (albeit from a limited pool). We Today, children's literature shapes a manner that might enhance the cur­ may conclude that students are becom­ much of what occurs in classrooms. riculum but doesn't offer the rich, ing more avid readers. Unfortunately, Children learn to read using picture meaningful experience that reading a once children finish these programs, books or excerpts of longer works, with good book should provide. It seems they often return to their former read­ or without computerized support sys­ that as teachers we sometimes lose ing habits, which in too many cases tems. John Scieszka's wild and funny sight of the reasons we read, and the means little or no reading at all. The The Math Curse becomes an interactive reasons we want our students to read­ points, the competition, or the grade read-aloud that helps students develop to imaginatively participate in new spurred them on, not the books. their mental math skills. One immi­ experiences through stories; to learn You might wonder why that's the grant child's arrival in the United States interesting information about the case if the books are good ones, and becomes a shared experience and a world through engaging nonfiction; to most of them are. A look at the tests social studies lesson with Aliki's Mari­ perceive the world in new ways commonly used in such reading pro­ anthe's Story: Painted Words/ Spoken Mem­ through poetry-all of which lead to grams provides at least part of the ories. Seymour Simon's brilliant books delight. Perhaps, because it's school, answer. The questions, designed to be about the universe allow students to see we're afraid to relax and enjoy our­ scored by a computer, force children to the marvels of space up close while giv­ selves. We're pressured for time and read in an unnatural manner. They are ing them a livelier reading experience struggling to cover everything in the generally recall questions, written to than that offered by science textbooks. curriculum that needs to be covered. assess a reader's literal comprehension. In thousands of classrooms across the We're worried about tests and about They often ask about superficial country, teachers are using children's our accountability for our students' details. An example of this kind of

17 Riverbank Review

question, in reference to E. B. White's ing even as we ourselves are trans­ ask students to respond to questions Charlotte's Web, might be, "What word formed through our experience of that that don't have a right answer. Even very did Templeton find in the trash at the particular narrative. This potential for young children can offer opinions and fair?" Can you remember? Does it mat­ transformation is what makes the read­ make simple inferences about charac­ ter? Not really, but a computer can ing experience powerful. It is also why ter motivations. Asking questions that score it. A better question- such as using stories as the basis for skill exer­ don't have a right answer says to chil­ "Do you think that Templeton helped cises or content learning, with little dren that their ideas are important and Wilbur out of greed, or had he become attention to the pleasure and power of encourages them to think about what a nicer rat by the end of the story?"­ those stories, works against the very they read. It validates children's exper­ asks students to think about what they goal we are working toward-the cre­ tise as readers and allows them to think read, to form opinions, to make infer­ ation of fluent, avid readers who seek of themselves as makers of meaning. ences: in short, to engage in the kind of out books on their own, who want to When these questions are asked in the behavior that good readers engage in spend time in the spell of a good book. context of a group discussion, they be­ all the time as they read. But such ques­ Rather, poorly thought out questions come the opportunity for literate con- tions can't be scored by a computer. If rote, literal-minded testing only happened occasionally, it wouldn't nec­ essarily be cause for alarm, but across a school year and across the years ofa child's schooling it happens repeatedly. The re­ sult is that students learn to read stories looking for the kind of details that are likely to show up on tests, rather than for the rich, open-ended experience that fiction, in particular, can offer. The same thing can happen with commercially distributed "kits" or book extension activities. Often the discus­ sion questions and extension ideas push students away from the experience of the book. For example, Kay Chorao's Albert 's Toothache is a delightful tale of a young turtle who tells his family he has a toothache. They all tell him that this is impossible because turtles don't have As we test students on their reading, what are we measuring? teeth. When his grandmother visits, she responds differently: she asks him and activities teach children to read for versation about books. As children talk where it hurts. When he points to his answers to questions. Many good read­ together about the stories they read, toe, resourceful Grandma solves the ers learn to look at the questions first they come to realize the breadth and problem. This book appears in units and skim the text for answers rather depth of ideas they can generate. They on dental health; it also is frequently than engage in reading; struggling understand that not everyone responds incorporated into studies of reptiles readers keep on struggling with a task in the same way to the same story, even and amphibians. In neither case do the that seems boring at best. as they all share a common under­ accompanying activities lead children In contrast, thoughtfully constructed standing of what it is "about." to reflect on the book's central theme discussion questions, writing prompts, Open-ended questions can be pow­ - the experience of having grownups and project ideas can lead children erful writing prompts, as can questions and older siblings dismiss a problem back into a book they have read in such that ask students to consider the literary they don't take the time to understand. a way that their understanding of the elements in a story. Teachers who use When we are engaged readers oflit­ story and of themselves is enriched. journals or other forms of exploratory erature, we transform words into mean- One easy way to accomplish this is to writing to augment student reading

18 Winter 2001-2002

find that asking such questions creates 3 poet\\ for "1inter opportunities for students to think more deeply about what they've read. Considering character traits and moti­ vations, exploring the setting, consid­ ering plot structure, or discovering thematic elements in a story are all ways to pull readers back into texts, inviting more precise reading. Carefully orchestrated projects can also help students discover more about the stories they read, especially if the projects are done with partners or in small groups. By making projects The Snow Woman social, teachers create the opportunity for children to discuss their ideas with Melted suddenly and was gone. one another, articulating what they I saw her carrot nose. I saw her red yarn understand about their reading. For mouth before the gray bird picked it up example, one project is for children to and flew away. Her mouth makes his nest now. make a collage that represents a char­ acter from a story, using pictures, words, The snow woman was a beauty. Everyone said so. or a combination of both. Ifthis is done We did her in a ballgown so we wouldn't have to as a shared venture, students have a carve her legs. concrete reason to talk about the char­ acter, even to argue about the character, We put my old black dancing shoes and perhaps to discover that literary on the ground in front of her. As the sun characters, like people, are complex took her the shoes filled with water. and sometimes contradictory. Again, this kind of talk leads readers back to The snow woman had cranberries for hair, the book. ripped from the cranberry tree. She was not So let's continue to give children's flirtatious, but solemn; however, the red color books a significant place in our class­ was great against the white. rooms, but let's do it in a manner that invites children to explore their read­ Before she melted there was an amazing snowstorm. ing more deeply. Through this explo­ She was buried and formless-shaggy-for three days ration, they will develop an apprecia­ she wasn't really a woman until the wind blew the storm tion of literature and a better off her body. Her yarn mouth hung down after the wind. understanding of themselves. Through We went out and fixed her. She looked like a caught fish narrative, we explore what it means to for that moment. be human; we experience the lives of others in a way that expands the possi­ When she melted the backyard felt empty and boring, bilities of our own. This is the reason to like when your beloved brothers leave for college, read books. This is why we all, adults and there's no one to talk to late at night. and children alike, continue to turn to None of us talked to her. We just lived with her. them as we do. -=- We built her with arms lifted, ready to embrace us. Lee Galda is a prefessor ofchildren's literature at the University of Minnesota. A former class­ -Deborah Keenan room teacher, she is an active volunteer in schools and is coauthor of Literature and the From Happiness (Ceffee House Press, 1995). Copyright © by Deborah Child, now in its fifth edition. Keenan. Reprinted with permission from the publisher.

19 Riverbank Review

20 Winter 2001-2002

Original Kin

Children's books house a wide range ofentertaining and unusual families. By Mary Lou Burket

o two families are the same, but some are more boldly tales"-and Ernest fears disturbing her. original than others. In classic children's novels, uncon­ He never goes out except to walk to school, "never raising his head, always N ventional families win the reader's heart with their self­ taking the same old way." From the read­ confidence and verve. Think of the idealistic Marches, the fun­ er's point of view, Ernest's circumscribed existence is too exquisitely odd to be loving Moffats, and the space-traveling Murrys-families set apart depressing. Besides, it has an air of Goth­ by disadvantages, advantages, and quirks. and witty illustrations that believably ic mystery. Where is Ernest's father, who Their spirit lives on in a number of dis­ express a child's awareness of her world. disappeared when Ernest was a baby? tinctive, entertaining children's books. Children may also be agents ofchange What is in the coded letter that his grand­ Not that every member of such a in families, a realistic possibility in books mother reveres but cannot read? (Every family is eccentric. In Lynne Rae for middle readers. Susie Morgenstern's Sunday, "Madame Morlaisse would Perkins's Clouds for Dinner (Greenwil­ Secret Letters.from 0 to 10 (Viking, 1998) is extract the sheet of paper from its enve­ low, 1997), Janet is the straightforward the story of Ernest Morlaisse, a quiet boy lope, carefully unfold it, and stare at it as child of parents happy to be living on a who leads a quiet life. His grandmother, if it contained the key to all the secrets of hill where they can watch the changing who cares for him, is delicate and old­ the universe.") sky. Climbing eighty-seven steps to "really old, like the grandmothers in fairy Ernest, who has never been hugged reach the view is a point of pride-it or hurried, is shaken to life by a keeps them young. But Janet is already girl at school-Victoria de Mon­ young and wants to live down low, in "a tardent, a bossy romantic who sensible house." loves as only a ten-year-old can Janet's aunt and uncle live in such a love. Victoria lives in a sprawling home, and when she visits them she flat with two contented parents revels in their big, proper meals and and a noisy band of thirteen tidy beds. But one morning, she brothers. Her family is, in its way, observes a flock of birds outside the as unorthodox as Ernest's, but it window of their house-birds that is also blessed with something look like blowing leaves until they lift Ernest needs-human warmth. into the sky. Awed by this event, Janet Enlivened by that warmth, Ernest wishes she could share it with her grows. He looks for ways to make mother, who is always urging her to things happen. "Grandmother," "look at something or listen to some­ he dares to ask, "is my father thing or smell something." dead?" Important questions have The sophisticated theme-a child's disarming answers in this beguil­ adaptation to a family code that doesn't ing novel. instinctively fit-might seem to be too Betsy Byars's The Not-just­ subtle for young readers. Yet Perkins Illustration by Lynne Rae Perkins, Anybody Famify (Delacorte, 1986) makes it clear with a plainspoken text .from Clouds for Dinner begins with Junior Blossom, age

21 Riverbank Review seven, falling off the barn roof on the appeared framed in the high glass pane same day that his granddad, whom they every time he jumped." This wonderful all call Pap, goes to jail for disturbing story is the first of five about the irre­ the peace. It's trouble, all right, but is it pressible Blossoms. an emergency? Junior's sister Maggie In Polly Horvath's The Trolls (Farrar, thinks it is and wants to call their moth­ Straus & Giroux, 1999), three children er, who is traveling on the rodeo circuit, are looked after by their colorful Aunt for help. But brother Vern, who once Sally while their parents are abroad. tried to reach their mother before, to no They've never met their aunt, but she avail, insists they handle matters by entrances them with stories of her themselves. childhood in Canada, near the ocean By alternating point of view among and the woods, the home of biting the family members, Betsy Byars clams and cougars. Funny as they are, builds suspense and sympathy. Every­ her stories suggest a family conflict that one, including Mud the dog (who has never been resolved. winds up lost and far from home) mis­ The children wonder why their judges something, and everyone, from father has never told them about these time to time, despairs, as the story pro­ fascinating times with Grandma Eve­ gresses from place to place: a hospital lyn, Great-aunt Hattie, and the rest. ward, a Dairy Qyeen, a taxi cab, a tree. Illustration by Jaqueline Rogers, Aunt Sally doesn't say, but she is Only the reader sees the full picture .from The Not-Just-Anybody Family adamant that natural disasters aren't as and knows the true extent of each dan­ fearful as "the ones that are inside of ger, which is never very great. thinks of home ("Mud drinking loudly you, waiting to happen, like what your Throughout this comedy of errors, out of the toilet, Pap grinding his Uncle John and Uncle Edward and I we sense the Blossoms' deep attach­ teeth"). And we sense it when Mud did to your father." This naturally ment to each other. We sense it when returns at last, reuniting them all: makes the children wonder even more. Vern uses a birdcall to communicate "Mud leapt up and down, throwing Perhaps Aunt Sally's loyalty to Pee with Pap. We sense it when Junior himself at the door. His happy face Wee, the youngest of the children, is a clue. When his sisters thoughtlessly dis­ parage him, she is his defender. And she always calls him Frank, his given name. Children's Literature 2002 "You're a regular giant," she says, ex­ plaining why the name Pee Wee doesn't Sponsored by The Ohio State University fit him. "Why, if a boy your age was that tall in Canada, they would make him Author/illustrator presentations as PRESENTERS INCLUDE: skip grade school and go right into the well as classroom, library, scholarly, Kevin Henkes Royal Canadian Mounted Police." and storytelling sessions. J. Patrick Lewis Aunt Sally is a vital force, a maker of Patricia Reilly Giff costumes, a player of games, a baker of cookies, a sage-all in all, according to Gail Carson Levine For more information, write: the children she befriends, a "satisfac­ Leonard Marcus tory grownup." She doesn't try to Roy Wilson Raymond Bial change the past or to explain it. c/o Children's Literature 2002 The Ohio State University Louise Borden Instead, she asks, "Iflife must be short, 229C Ramseyer Hall Janet Taylor Lisle must it also be dreary?" Which suggests 29 W. Woodruff Ave. Steve Jenkins another question: If families must be Columbus, OH 43210 E. B. Lewis flawed, must they also be sad? -=- Or call 614-292-7902 Anne Rockwell Mary Lou Burket is a contributing editor lo Riverbank Review.

22 Winter 2001-2002

Chris Crutcher

In stories about atypical athletes, this novelist explores what it means to play fair. By Deb Kruse-Field

hris Crutcher takes growing up seriously in his young adult conducted in St. Paul at the annual con­ novels, adding depth to the "sports story" genre with vention of the Upper Midwest Book­ sellers Association, in October. Cinsightful character study and balancing painful circum­ D KF: Since September 11,feelings of stances with sensitive humor. Among other awards and honors, anger,fear, loss, and gradual acceptance of a changed world have clouded our country. he recently received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime I'm curious about your reaction to recent achievement in writing for teens. (1993), whose physical and emotional events, both as a therapist and as a writer. Before he thought about writing for scars from abuse prevent her from C C: It is a changed world. Day to young adults, Crutcher was already lis­ trusting others, and Bo Brewster in day it may or may not seem different, tening to their stories in his work as a lronman (1995), whose temper lands but something has been inserted into teacher and then as the director of an him in an anger management group. our consciousness, and I don't know alternative K-12 school in Oakland, Cal­ In addition to his novels, Crutcher how that's going to tum out. One thing ifornia. Eventually, he became a child has published a popular story collec­ I've noticed already, though, is that peo­ protection specialist and family thera­ tion, Athletic Shorts (1991), featuring ple are being more decent to each other. pist in Spokane, Washington. At about characters and situations that are at And it's kind of nice to have the this time, Crutcher wrote his first novel, once believable and extraordinary, like flag back. Before September 11, you Running Loose (1983), published (like all the grossly overweight Angus Bethune, couldn't have gotten me to put a flag his subsequent work for young readers) who has two sets of homosexual par­ on my car. It would have meant some­ by Greenwillow. Set in Trout, Idaho, a ents and is elected Winter Ball king as a thing very different from liberty, to me. fictional community patterned after joke. Crutcher has also written one It would have meant that I was closed­ Crutcher's hometown of Cascade, Run­ novel for adults (Deep End, published minded, and too conservative to con­ ning Loose is the story of a high school by William Morrow in 1992) and has sider other people's points of view. athlete named Louie Banks, who, in his written screenplays for several of his I don't think we have any idea of the senior year, grapples with his decision to young adult novels. number of good things and the number quit the football team in response to the In Crutcher's latest novel, Whale of scary things that are going to come actions of his racist coach. Talk (2001 ), a tough yet sensitive young out of this. We have to keep an open Drawing on his experience as a man named T. J. denounces the elitist mind and wait to see how it all unfolds. teacher and a therapist, as well as on his jock culture at his high school and cre­ You've written about our responsibility own adolescence, Crutcher went on to ates a swim team out ofa group offringe to include kids in communities rather than write Stotan! (1986), CraZ:J Horse Electric characters who have little swimming abil­ isolate them. In your books, kids who don't Game (1987), and Chinese Handcuffs ity but enormous courage. Whale Talk is fit into traditional groups often form their (1989), establishing himself as a a beautifully layered story of commu­ own relationships, like the friendship respected writer for young adults. nity that, like Crutcher's other books, between Sarah and Eric in Staying Fat Crutcher may be best known for deftly combines grit and comedy. for Sarah Byrnes. Making kids feel his poignant and memorable charac­ Crutcher continues to write and included and part of a community seems ters, like the sarcastic, smart-as-a-whip work part time as a child and family especially important right now. girl in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes therapist in Spokane. This interview was In the wake of Columbine and other

23 Riverbank Review incidents, we really missed the boat in struggling. That's the character who terms of inclusion. If we knew what it can say what the fifty-five-year-old was like to feel as alone as some kids Chris Crutcher sees. It's what Mr. Nak feel-even the shooters-we wouldn't does in lronman, and what the coach tolerate it. It's our responsibility to does in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. I deal with those kids and acknowledge always have one character who lets me their isolation. tell the adult side. "Zero tolerance"-what a foolish We think that we're not supposed idea. It gives us a false sense of protec­ to let kids see our vulnerabilities, but in tion. Telling kids to stay away from fact, when we do, we become people to other kids because they're bad influ­ turn to. If you know that I've gone ences: what kind of arrogance is that? through the same thing that you've Don't help this kid. Isolate him more gone through, you're going to be a lot until he learns to quit cussing or smok­ more willing to tell me your story. ..::- ing or doing drugs. When we do that, Kids see and hear horrific stories in the ~ when we say we will validate you if you media. ret many ofyour books are banned act the way we want you to, and invali­ because of their gritty content. What are date you when you don't, then we pay. your thoughts on that? Everybody pays. I'm censored by people who are afraid The manuscript that ultimately became to sit down and talk about real things Whale Talk was originally about a school with their kids. They think that if they shooting. Then Columbine happened, and Chris Crutcher can keep their kids ignorant, that's the you told your editor, Susan Hirschman, to safe thing for them to do. I applaud throw it out. What was it like to give up au I love it when a character comes to that they want to do the safe thing, but I that work and start again? me full-blown like that. His story of run­ don't applaud their doing it in that A lot of people have told me they ning over the little kid is a real story that fashion. thought that was a wonderful move, but I heard about when I was in elementary I've never written about an issue that it wasn't as noble as it sounds. I turned school. The part that moved me most, I haven't heard about from a kid. I've on my TV as the kids were coming out that found its way into the book, was the never used language I didn't use or hear of Columbine High School. First I had highway patrol's letting him go all the as a kid, or now hear from kids. What to get past the shock of what was hap­ way home before they told him what offends one person is ordinary speech pening. And then I realized that my book had happened, which I thought was for another. The minute we refuse to lis­ had just gone into the tank. It wasn't hugely compassionate. But the thing I ten to the truth in its native tongue, we that I was afraid to tackle the subject. I used to think about was, God, there were take ourselves off that very short list of just wasn't going to exploit it, and I these three hours when his life had people a young person will tum to. We couldn't feel bad about that decision. I already turned over on him, and he can get all uptight and say, "I don't want only had to think about the people who didn't know it yet. I've always been inter­ you looking at tl1is" or "I don't want you lived in Littleton, Colorado. ested in that kind of situation, when reading about that." What is that going to So, I knew I had a trashed story, but something awful happens. There's accomplish but ignorance? I figured I could sell it for parts. When I always a moment when you imagine In the preface to /1 Brief Moment in went back to it I had T. ]., and some other stepping back over that sliver of time the Life ofAngus Bethune, "you write that characters were floating around as well. and doing it differently. But you can't. when you need a story idea, you go running. All I had to do was get an incident going, I appreciate the fact that you let your I have a short attention span, so sit­ like the business of this bizarre swim adult characters show their weaknesses. ting in front of a computer or sitting team, and go with it. In adolescent literature you get the with a pen, forcing myself when I don't T.]. 'sfather is a powerful character in perspectives of a lot of kids, but not of have much to work on, is just idiotic. Whale Talk-a motorcycle guy with a adults. As a therapist, I'm always look­ Running has a cadence to it. There's a grzeff exterior, grappling with feelings of ing for the one adult who ever stood meditative quality to the way your mind guilt and atonement in relation to a horri­ up, or who will stand up and make a flows when you're running. I run with ble accident. connection with a young person who is a small tape recorder. I'm playing with

24 Winter 2001-2002 characters, playing with incidents, and land, and I learned a lot because of my guide. As a writer, too, you're looking at all of a sudden I get the pictures of the ignorance. But ultimately, you find a the shape of somebody's life: there are events that are going to make the story way to put yourself in other people's things that fit and things that probably work. I never have true writer's block, shoes. I don't want to be presumptu­ don't matter. The trick is to find the unless I'm just overloaded and not pay­ ous about things I don't know about, things that matter. ing attention. I've thought about trying but I refuse to believe we can't work What do you take from your own ado­ to get a tax write-off for running shoes. out our racial differences by looking at lescence? That sense of sports being more than what is similar about us rather than One of the reasons I write about something physical is a strong theme in your what is different. The similarities far adolescence is that I do remember writing. Friends undergo a week oftraining outweigh the differences. mine. I draw the voice from there. Each that is emotional!J as well as physical!J rig­ You've taught, directed a school, and of the narratives I've written draws in orous in Stotan! Louie quits football in worked as a therapist. How direct!J do you some way on my seventeen-year-old Running Loose because efa moral conflict draw upon these experiences to create your self. My characters are far more heroic, with the coach. T]. assembles a swim team fiction? usually, than I would have been, and out ef guys who aren 't even swimmers. Any story I pulled out of thin air the power struggle I put into a book These aren't typical sports stories. What led would be a thin story. As a teacher and may be ten times the power struggle I you to write this type ef story? as a therapist I've heard amazing stories ever got into, but the process is the I grew up in a town that was so same, the response is the same. I small, everybody played sports. Other­ remember my sense of what was fair wise there weren't enough people on The minute we refuse and what wasn't fair. I had a meteoric the team. But I was keenly aware that temper when things weren't right. the athletes led privileged lives in to listen to the truth in Even when your characters face rough school. I always hated that-and I was circumstances, you weave humor into their one of the privileged ones. its native tongue, voices. Angus Bethune is ridiculed; Bo I worked in my dad's service sta­ Brewster discovers that his father is plotting tion, like Louie Banks. By ten o'clock at we take ourselves off against him. ~t they remain resilient in the night, we were the only place in town midst ofpain . Jn your writing and in real still open. So guys who were part of the that very short list of tragedy, what is the role ofhumor? in crowd-and also guys who weren't It's a healer. Anytime we can laugh -would stop in and sit around and people a young person we feel better than when we can't, and it talk. I'd hear their stories, and I think puts things in perspective. As a writer, I my sense of fairness was jabbed at an will turn to. find balance in humor. If I'm going to early age, because it was clear that the tell stories about fathers burning their school and the townspeople didn't treat three-year-old babies against wood­ some of them as well as they treated of cruelty, heroism, and everything in stoves, I'd better have a balance for me, and I felt guilty and a little angry. I between. I'm not going to stick people's that. Nothing exists without its oppo­ love athletics, and I love physical testing, lives into my books, but the characters, site. The tougher I'm going to get, the but I hate it when it becomes political. the incidents, and the patterns that take more humor I'm going to need. From T j. is a mixed-race character, and I shape in my mind come from the lives of the character's point of view, it allows notice you often include characters from people I have known. You never run out him to get over the really tough spots. I other cultures in your work. Some people of stories if you spend enough time lis­ work in child abuse and neglect. You argue that authors shouldn't write outside tening to people talk. need a huge dose of humor to be able to ef their race or culture. What do you think Do you ever struggle to balance your get through things. So that's the strate­ about that? roles, the therapist in you who wants to gy that I use in life. If it works in life, it The color of your skin is a function give advice and the writer who just wants ought to work in a book.-=- of how close your ancestors lived to the to tell a good story? equator, way long ago. Certainly there Always go with the writer. The ther­ Deb Kruse-Field, a former fifth-grade teacher, is are cultural differences, and I'm very apist can wind up being a preacher, now a graduate student ofchildren's literature at sensitive to them. I was a dumb white which is actually bad therapy. As a ther­ the University ofMinnesota . She lives with her guy running a school in inner-city Oak- apist, I listen to people and act as a husband in St. Paul.

25 Riverbank Review

revie. ~s

Picture Books proclaims the three friends' motto to be Schwartz's ink-and-watercolor art­ "Boys only!"; the next he admits that work conveys the three friends' near­ ~ on Tuesday they let Sophie P. play ball constant movement as they squirm The Boys Team with them. Then on Wednesday Julia during naptime or race around the play­ By Amy Schwartz C. joins in, and on Thursday they can't ground wearing blankets as capes. It also ATHENEUM really leave out Julia D . And, as with attentively records the texture of their 40 pages, Ages 3-6, $16.95 most young children,Jacob's mood can everyday lives. Her pictures are alive ISBN 0-689-84I38-8 change as swiftly as the rules do. On with color and pattern, but not over­ one telling double-page spread, only a whelmingly so. The brightly clad charac­ Kindergarten-age friends Oscar, Eddie, brief time-out and a couple of inches of ters in the foreground and background and Jacob are a tightly knit trio. You white space separate a fight with Julia are given plenty of room in which to dis­ can best see how close they are on Hal­ D. (she menaces Jacob with her doll, tinguish themselves. Thus, readers can loween, when, as narrator Jacob proud­ and he hurls the doll off the stoop) take time to observe the other children ly announces: from a convivial scene in which the two and teachers at school or the moms sit­ of them share a snack. There isn't ting with their kids at the Chinese restau­ I was Darth Vader. always complete harmony within the rant without ever losing track of who the Oscar was ranks of "the boys team," either. But book's real stars are. "We are Mutant Darth Vader. the friction quickly subsides, leaving Sharks! We take over the park!" pro­ Eddie was Oscar, Eddie, and Jacob to bound claims Jacob. Today kindergarten, Darth Vader. blithely off to the next activity, be it tomorrow the world! In Amy Schwartz's priceless por­ painting, swimming, or soccer. - Renee Victor trait of them, with their matching light sabres, glowing red eyes, and plastic Four in All jack-o'-lanterns, the three Darths look By Nina Payne both invincible and sweet-though of Illustrated by Adam Payne course they would object to the latter. FRONT STREET The Boys Team practically vibrates with 32 pages, Age 5 and up, $ 15. 95 the energy they exude when they are ISBN 1-886910-16-2 together. In Star Wars terms, the Force is definitely with them. The big world and a child's place in it are As Schwartz has demonstrated in given solid and imaginative expression previous picture books, such as A Teeny, in this picture-book collaboration Tiny Baby and Some Babies, she is adept between a mother and son. Poet Nina at depicting the qualities children pos­ Payne offers up an inventory of objects sess at various ages. Here Jacob's narra­ and ideas that serves both as a vocabulary tive is as rambunctious and mercurial as lesson and as an expression of the essen­ he is. Sometimes the text rhymes, Illustration by Amy Schwartz,from tial harmony and balance in the world. sometimes it doesn't. One moment he The Boys Team The rhyming couplets that form the

26 Winter 2001 - 2002 poem mirror that harmony in their deceptively simple, pleasing rhythm:

one two three four roof window chimney door

bird fish bear snake ocean river puddle lake

Each grouping of four nouns receives its own two-page spread, an intricate cut-paper landscape created by Adam Payne. The paper used for these exquisite collages is wonderfully textur­ al, threaded with flecks and dyed in a Illustration by Adam Payne, .from Four in All range of organic hues. In each scene there is a pleasing balance of large hammer and a paintbrush. After con­ easy rhymes and gentle, subtly shifting shapes- soft green hillsides, a midnight structing her home away from home rhythms, the book has a comfortingly blue background for moon and stars­ (what child doesn't dream of this?) she steady design as well. Full-page color and tiny detail: individual blades of balances on its rooftop weather vane, illustrations on the right-hand pages grass, the scales on a fish, the dainty blowing a trumpet. Her call is heard by are balanced by words and small black­ white petals of water lilies. Only the four creatures across the water (bird, and-white sketches on the left. sharpest eyes will discern some details: in fish , bear, and snake) who hop into a Through the first half of the book, the spread for "one two three four," boat and head over. After sharing a meal Burningham introduces his droopy­ most readers will pick out one bumble­ with her new companions, the girl must eyed characters-animals, birds, fish, a bee, two ants, and three ladybugs, but return to her real home. Her animal baby, and even the man in the some may have trouble spotting the friends serenade her as she departs. moon-in the color illustrations. four minuscule elves hiding in the grass. Concept books for young children From the facing sketches, the reader The arc of action is playful and typically feature simple, generalized may guess why each one is sleepy: The inspired, making a child's imaginative forms in bright colors. Four in All in con­ three tired bears climbing the stairs adventure the ground on which basic trast, invites close scrutiny in a well­ with bags in tow are shown in the concepts are learned. In the first spread lighted room. Its muted colors and extra­ sketch opposite pushing a broken­ ("eyes ears nose mouth"), the girl who ordinary delicacy of design may find a down truck. The baby who stands in a looks out at us brightly, beneath the more appreciative audience in children boat, leaning on his oar and rubbing leaves of a sheltering tree, seems ready who are beyond the age of learning the his eyes, has a right to be tired if he to take in the world that surrounds her. words in the poem, but not above think­ spent the day rowing past lighthouses, Next she stands at an intersection of ing about them in a new way. avoiding treacherous rocks in the sea. ribboning paths that extend tempting­ - Martha Davis Beck The center spread separates the ly in four directions ("east west north sleepy pages from the sleeping ones, south"). Armed with a lantern and a stating the case plainly: "Now we are Hushabye loaf of bread, she embarks on an outing, tired, we need to lie down. It's time to By John Burningham marching through a field ("oats wheat sleep KNOPF for the night. When morning corn rye") and crossing a narrow 32 pages, Ages 4- 8, $ 14. 95 comes, we will wake up again. Tomor­ bridge, seemingly suspended across the ISB N 0-375-81414-0 row will be a new day." The following heavens ("sun moon stars sky"). pages show each character happily Her destination turns out to be an The most prized bedtime books are asleep. Now the facing sketches and island, where the ingredients of a cozy those whose words, rhythms, and words foretell tomorrow's activities: home lie heaped in a friendly jumble on images lull the children who read the sleeping goose will "fly off again the ground. Dressed in overalls, this them. John Burningham's Hushabye, when it's light" and the dreaming frog capable girl sets to work: she is comfort­ originally published in England, is a will "hop off once more in the morn." able on a ladder and adept with both a melodic goodnight poem. Filled with You, too, must sleep now, says the

27 Riverbank Review coaxing parent to the restive child, Next to him stands a frowning, mus­ out pages. Going through this book is reading the last words of this yawn­ tached fellow in a suit and striped tie. like exploring a maze of office cubi­ inspiring book: "Your head's on the All is well until the turn of an L-shaped cles; Gomi's understated paper engi­ pillow. You'll soon be asleep." page masks the image of the boy and neering creates a surprising illusion of It's the oldest story in the world, isolates the grumpy man on the left three-dimensional space. Despite a yet one that needs to be retold over foreground. The boy reappears, alone ho-hum conclusion, this taut story and over, especially to small children in the right background, and cries, convincingly presents a child's take on who live in the moment and cannot "My Dad disappeared! I lost my Dad!" a scary situation, one that adults conceive of "later" or "tomorrow." The boy runs through the store, might casually underestimate. Hushabye promises those for whom ignored by clerks and casual shoppers -Nathalie op de Beeck there is only the here and now that (some disciplining their own chil­ everything will still be here when they dren). He thinks he sees the top of his "Let's Get a Pup!" Said Kate awaken. father's head above a fashion display By Bob Graham is much to smile over in this ("There! That's his hat"), but turning There CANDLEWICK understated book, but nothing to the page reveals the whole hat-on a 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $14. 99 break the slumber-inducing mood. mannequin. Visual tricks keep com­ ISBN: 0-7636-1452-1 Internal rhymes ("The baby's asleep in ing as he searches. The boy grimaces the boat that's afloat") give the lan­ with worry, then leaps up in astonish­ Bob Graham seems to be the only liv­ guage a gentle swing and sway. The ment each time he is disappointed, ing picture-book creator to realize that illustrations have a solidity of color providing a strong sense of before­ people in their twenties are having chil­ and simplicity of line reminiscent of and-after, hopefulness and letdown. dren-and he is extremely friendly children's artwork. Soothed by the Leave it to Gomi, who rose to about it. The parents in this book (as sight of the world sleeping around notoriety with Everyone Poops, to set well as some of his others) have wild them and reassured by the promise of a one scene in a men's room. "Which hairdos and tattoos; dad sports a couple new yet familiar day, even reluctant one is he?" the boy wonders, staring at of earrings, and mom wears one on her sleepers will succumb to Hushabye's the backs of two men using the urinals; nose. Their house is a cheerful, thor­ soporific spell. a third man walks away, zipping his oughly modern mess, complete with -Krystyna Poray Goddu fly, and the feet of a fourth man show music magazines on the floor and a under the door of a stall. When a flap television set that is, on occasion, actu­ is lifted, the standing men turn their ally watched! Clothing is casual Friday I Lost My Dad heads to look at the boy, and neither is to the nth degree, every day of the By Taro Gomi his father: "Oh no! Not again! Where week. With an easygoing charm, Gra­ KAN EIM! Ll..ER perfectly timed ham lets us in on what truly defines 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $12.95 could he be?" This alleviates the dreadful ten­ this young couple-how much they ISBN 1-929132-04-2 sequence sion, and the child and his father, love their daughter, Kate. Information is alternately concealed going opposite directions on escala­ And she wants a pup! Ever since and revealed in this cagey book about tors, soon spot each other through a V­ Kate's cat died, her bed has felt lonely. an unintentional game of hide-and-seek shaped slice in a page. Their reunion An impromptu visit to the Rescue between father and son. The nerve­ brings catharsis, but strangely fails to Center is agreed upon. Breakfast goes wracking events take place in a depart­ suggest real relief. The father's glum uneaten, clothes are thrown on, and a ment store, where pillars and room frown stays solidly put, and he does two-page spread opens up to depict dividers block sight lines for people of not exchange a hug or even a smile long aisles of cages holding every kind small stature-and make those short with his son. Without further ado, of dog you might run into at a shelter. individuals hard to find, too. Taro Gomi they resume shopping. Graham's rhythmic wordplay suggests makes use of die-cuts and demi-pages Gomi paints iconic figures in angu­ the overwhelming nature of the place: to simulate a child's limited view as he lar, planed settings, and his saturated "They found ... big dogs, small dogs, searches for his "lost" father. watercolor hues fairly shout against sniffers and sleepers, wire-haireds, short­ The initial spread ("I was looking at the bright white backgrounds. The haireds, scratchers, and leapers ....They the toys when ... ") pictures a smiling stylized illustrations complement the saw a lot of dogs. Then they saw ... boy playing with a miniature crane. utterly basic, thoroughly effective cut- Dave." Graham knows how it is when

28 Winter 2001-2002 you fall in love with a dog. Dave is the perfect pup-everything the family hoped for: he's small, cute, and brand­ new. But then on their way out of the Rescue Center, they run into Rosie, the most humble and lovable old gray dog imaginable: "It was difficult for her to get to her feet, but she stood, it seemed, almost politely." Graham perfectly captures this family's wistful longing. They take little Dave home but cannot forget big, old Rosie. They go back for her, of course, and Dave's chaotic energy is tempered by Rosie's warm, mellow presence in their home. With simple, cartoonish lines and bright colors, Graham unfailingly snares the emotions of the moment. Illustration by Bob Graham,from "Let's Get a Pup!" Said Kate Here he provides sweet glimpses of family life with the welcome addition of two furry friends. By the end of this fill her bedroom, as well as the tiger When she refuses to tell her par­ heartwarming story, Kate's bed is no slippers on her feet, that she is, indeed, ents what has happened to Fluffy, Nell longer lonesome. Dave and Rosie have enamored. "The only thing she was is sent to her room. The slow realiza­ joined her: "Their weight is comfort­ missing was an animal that was actual­ tion of the awful thing she's done is able and reliable, and will stop Kate's ly alive." That's a big step for a kid­ underscored by Christa Unzner's bed from floating away into the night." from nonchalantly tending a well­ astute, mood-setting ink-and-watercol­ -Christine Alfano wom teddy bear to the consistent care or illustrations: Nell sits in her bed­ and maintenance required by a living room, her face a badge of worry and thing. But, like any child, when Nell self-doubt; all the stuffed animals in Nell & Fluffy receives a guinea pig for her sixth her room face her, and their unblink­ By Anne Liersch birthday she is overjoyed-and certain ing stares compound Nell's shame. Illustrated by Christa Unzner she can handle the responsibility. Fluffy is returned four agonizing N ORTH - SOUTH BOOKS days later, on the eve of Nell's seventh 32pages,Ages3-7, $15.95 Nell does love Fluffy. She feeds him a fresh carrot every day, lets him birthday, by the neighborhood lady ISBN: 0-7358-1424-4 run around the kitchen, and never gets who happened to find him. It may be Children are capable of feeling intense angry when he mistakes her toys for a puzzle to some readers how loving anguish and remorse, not that you'd food. Best of all, Nell talks to Fluffy­ parents could withhold this happy know it from most picture books. and he seems to understand her. When news from their truly mournful daugh­ Happier realms are usually their she begins first grade, however, the ter. (They wait to surprise her until the domain, and perhaps rightly so. But other children in her class boast about uncharacteristically somber present­ periodically it's refreshing to find a pic­ their bigger, better pets. Nell's disap­ opening time rolls around.) But Nell's ture book that offers an honest portray­ pointment gnaws at her. She figures elation and relief at Fluffy's return are al of a child who is grappling with dark­ that if she is ever to get a dog or a cat palpable. When she gazes at her er emotions. Nell, of NeU & Fleffy, does or a horse-a "big kid's pet" -she will beloved pet from her bed that evening, something very wrong in this story, and have to get rid of Fluffy. A child's logic all of her toys gaze too, this time with the repercussions of. her actions have ensues: consequences are shoved a welcoming air of forgiveness. This the impact of a bruise to the heart. aside, an ideal future brightly imag­ sensitive story allows children to see The book's first sentence proclaims ined. Nell puts Fluffy into a box with something important-that other chil­ that "Nell loved animals," and we see straw and some carrots and leaves him dren sometimes make awful mistakes. from the scads of stuffed creatures that in some bushes near the corner store. -Christine Alfano

29 Riverbank Review

South, North, Back & Forth

Loon Summer them. This is also the summer that Rainie learns to swim underwater, like By Barbara Santucci dad enjoy Illustrated by Andrea Shine the young loons she and her EERDMANS watching on the lake. The loons that, 32 pages, Age 5 and up, $16. 00 as Rainie points out to her father, stay ISBN 0-8028-5182-7 together for life provide a metaphor for both what is lost and what remains. Two Homes Andrea Shine's soft watercolors create By Claire Masure! a lyrical mood that perfectly suits the Illustrated by story. She captures the shimmering qual­ Kady MacDonald Denton ity of sunlight on water, the drama in a CANDLEWICK changing sky, and the multitude of hues 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $14.99 in a strip of woods or grassy wetland. ISBN 0-7636-0511-5 Slivers of cut paper add subtle accents Illustration by Andrea Shine,from Loon Summer to the landscapes in each painting. To & Fro, Fast & Slow Sometimes divorce happens when By Durga Bernhard with pleasures and new discoveries. children are so young, a life with two W ALKER It's true, as Rainie says, that things are homes is the life they know from the 32 pages, Ages 3-7, $15. 95 different, but her father's promise that get-go. Two Homes offers a warm and ISBN 0-8027-8782-1 "some parts will be the same" refers lively picture of a young child (not not only to shared activities at a favorite obviously a girl or boy) who travels Divorce can be harder on children than place, but also to the love both of comfortably between two loving envi­ adults realize. Even in families where Rainie's parents have for her, even ronments. lines of communication remain open, when one of them isn't with her. "Here I am! I am Alex," the pix­ there is a natural wish on the part of Some differences offer opportuni­ ieish child declares, pointing happily children for their once intact family to ties for growth, or simply for a new at a bold self-portrait. In the next be reunited, even if they recognize the experience. In summers past, Rainie's spread, Alex's parents are introduced troubles that tore the family apart. mom would bait her daughter's hook in similar fashion: they each smile Loon Summer tells the story of a girl when they went fishing, help her to down from lovingly drawn pictures. spending her first vacation up at the create necklaces made of violets, and With these preliminary introductions lake without Mom. Familiar activities make jam from berries the three of them out of the way, the reader is given a Rainie enjoys with her dad have an picked together. While Rainie can't help tour of the double world that is home empty feeling caused by her mother's feeling tearful as she slides a flower for this child. absence. Barbara Santucci gives Rainie's necklace over her head, she is proud The scenes pictured in Two Homes sadness the space it needs in this quiet, when she sticks a wiggly worm onto the are simple and the text spare, suitable sensitively conceived story, yet the hook, and she enjoys eating the sweet for sharing with very young children. summer she describes is also one filled blueberries as she and her dad pick In each home Alex has a cozy bed-

30 Winter 2001-2002

room, one with a bunk bed by the parent whose v1s1t and a basketball hoop, the has ended, the white bunny other with a fish tank and an sticking out of a pink knap­ easel to paint at. Both envi­ sack that makes the trip too. ronments are pleasantly Most of the pages in To cluttered-they look loved & Fro, Fast & Slow feature and lived in. Blocks spill inset images or are sliced across the floor at Daddy's in half-some horizontal­ house; dress-up costumes are ly, some diagonally- to tossed about at Mommy's. show parallel pastimes at Home is a place where Alex the girl's two homes, or to swings back and forth in a contrast different activities, rocking chair, playing cards making the point that each with Daddy. It is also a place home is a place for work to curl up in an armchair, and play, for quiet and reading a book with Mommy. noisy times, and for occa­ It is wherever Alex happens sions that are both sad and to be. happy. While the word Durga Bernhard's To & Illustration by Kady MacDonald Denton,from Two Homes pairs that describe each Fro, Fast & Slow focuses on scene relate most obviously the experience of a child who spends creative touches that mirror the inge­ to physical activity, the book's com­ some of her time in the country with nuity required to keep two different forting subtext asserts that this child's her mom and some in the city with her households peacefully in tandem. full range of moods can be expressed dad. On the colorful cover, the girl While some children of divorced par­ and her different needs met in both herself divides the image into quad­ ents are uncomfortably caught "in environments. She is shown doing fun rants, her arms and legs extended so between," this girl nimbly negotiates things with each of her parents-going that she forms an X. The title appears her way "to and fro." on a bike ride and building a snow fort above and below her; city buildings The book's endpapers show curv­ with her mother, going to the movies (and a leaping black cat) are to her left, ing roads that end as arrows, one lead­ and sharing ice cream sodas with her rolling hills (and a bounding black ing "to Mom's," the other "to Dad's." father-and also spending time on her dog) to her right. As the cover sug­ Soft scenes from each landscape, rural own. The quiet moments and the lov­ gests, the mood of this book is and urban, are nestled in the curves of ing expressions on her parents' faces energetic and its design is lively, full of each road. Indeed, the book proper help to settle the book's mood, keeping begins with the girl it from feeling chaotic. The book ends in transit, heading on an intimate note, with two images south with her moth­ that together fill a circle. In the top er in the top half of half, the girl kisses her country dog the page and north "hello"; in the bottom half, she hugs with her dad in the her city cat "good-bye." bottom half. A white Bernhard's illustrations are vibrant stuffed bunny sits be­ and appealing and, most of all, ground­ side her, whichever ed in the immediate world of a child. car she rides in, and The vision expressed in Two & Fro, Fast on the next spread & Slow is that of a young life that has ("back & forth") we been fundamentally divided but is see her being dropped nonetheless kept in balance. Rlustration by Durga Bemhard,from To & Fro, Fast & Slow off at each location -Martha Davis Beck

31 Riverbank Review

A Place to Sleep ing weight as its heavy trunk. Unfortu­ aware of the sadness and worry in his By Holly Meade nately, in some spreads, the words are own household. In a scene reminis­ CAVENDISH swallowed by the gutter at the center of cent of Ben's Trumpet, by Rachel Isado­ 32pages, Ages 4-7, $15.95 the book; otherwise the movement of the ra, a virtuosic horn player named ISBN 0-7614-5096-3 text enhances Meade's animal portraits. Smilin' Jack notices the glum but Of course, a story like this is meant attentive boy in the crowd and steps A massive brown bear fills the first page to entice young ones to sleep, and the forward to befriend him. When Sonny of Holly Meade's enchanting book two children at book's end, stretching describes his situation, Smilin' Jack about animals' sleep habits, and he and yawning and wearing pajamas, proposes a splendid solution: a party becomes the first subject of its musing: move "to beds clean and soft." We're to raise the rent money. with them, feeling wonderfully cozy, In an afterword, author William When this bear needs Meade's pages having turned toward Miller explains that rent parties were to snooze, where the softer, blue-green palette of which common in African American neigh­ does he choose to sweet dreams are made. Her final image borhoods throughout the South during lay down his furry self? places us outside the sleeping children's the first half of the twentieth century, Twelve animals in all (including house. It's dark. The book says "Good and in other parts of the country as well. humans) are followed to their favorite night." Where shall we go to sleep? Musicians would play and neighbors bedtime lairs in an intriguing format -Christine Alfano would gather, bringing whatever food that features Meade's big, bold, cut­ they could. As people enjoyed the party paper collage on one page and, on the they tossed spare change into a hat (or Rent Party Jazz next, a contained black pen-and-ink the equivalent) to help their neighbors By William Miller study that answers the question posed. pay the rent. Such events were forerun­ Illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb repet­ ners of other kinds of musical benefits It's a formula that could become LEE & Low to raise money for the poor, the dis­ itive, but Meade's wordplay enlivens 32 pages, Age 6 and up, $16. 95 placed, or the unjustly imprisoned. each simple question, while her extrav­ ISBN 1-58430-025-6 agantly large and beautifully rendered Charlotte Riley-Webb's acrylic paint­ images compel readers to turn the page. Sonny Comeaux is a boy growing up in ings fill the page with bold swirls of Subtle rhymes float within her con­ New Orleans in the 1930s. Times are color that evoke the pulsing energy of trolled phrasing, and alliteration cre­ hard. His mother works in a fish can­ jazz and the warmth of community. ates a lulling back and forth: nery, and to make ends meet, Sonny starts each day "like a work­ When this elephant needs to ing man," helping the coal man snooze with his deliveries throughout the where does he choose to rest his French Q!iarter. When Sonny's wrinkly self? mother temporarily loses her job, The reply to this question is con­ he despairs over what to do. He versational and sprightly: would gladly take a second job, but she is firm about the importance of Hard to believe, but! his staying in school, to "learn Standing on his everything you can-everything, so Feet he nods and will be better for you." Still, Naps as necessary. things they both know that if the rent Playful typographical design ener­ can't be paid, they will be thrown gizes the book. The text loops from one out on the street. page to the next, interacting with the Sonny has a taste for music, shape of the animal portrayed, often and on his way home from school mimicking that animal's style of move­ he lingers in Jackson Square, ment: the text about the jack rabbit hops where he hears fine jazz that draws across the pages; the elephant's query crowds of passersby. The joyful Illustration by Charlotte Riley-Webb, travels back and forth with the same sway- music makes Sonny even more from Rent Party Jazz

32 Winter 2001 - 2002

Music splashes out of Smilin' Jack's paintings is anything but conventional. in a house with a supercilious cat and horn in arcs of red and gold. At the In the same loose style she employed in hen, holds aside a lace curtain with his party, warm brown hands fill the air, Tasty Baby Belly Buttons, So captures head, while through the lace a silhou­ graceful as birds lifting into flight, as both the comedy and the poignancy of ette of the menacing pair can just be the people dance to Smilin' Jack's music the ugly duckling's changing fortunes seen, the whole image rendered in and eventually join him in singing through subtle yet telling details: in tones of gray and white. "When the Saints Go Marching In." A one scene, the poor duckling, trapped As the duckling moves through his bucket full of coins assures that, for the time being, Sonny and his mother will make out okay. Smilin' Jack's farewell hug enfolds Sonny, leaving the boy with a happy heart-and the dream of one day learning to play the trumpet. - Martha Davis Beck

The Ugly Duckling By Hans Christian Andersen Retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland Illustrated by Meilo So KNOPF 32 pages, Ages 5-8, $23.95 ISBN 0-375-8 1319-5

This faithful retelling of "The Ugly Duckling" marries the smooth prose of Carnegie medalist Kevin Crossley-Hol­ land with stunningly conceived water­ colors by Meilo So. The details and the spirit of Hans Christian Andersen's orig­ inal semi-autobiographical tale breathe again through Crossley-Holland's poet­ ic language. The story's setting comes through vividly in its opening:

How lovely it was in the summer country! Green oats, and wheat green and gold; the thick sweet smell of newly scythed hay.

Sensual particulars wind in and around the subtle humor of the short, clipped dialogue, making this retelling as rewarding as it is accessible. "He's not a turkey," says the mother duck about her odd-looking child. "He's my own baby. In fact ... if you look at him carefully, he's rather handsome." A perfect complement to the text, So's nuanced illustrations place the tale firmly in a traditional setting, but the www.spalding .edu grace of line and composition in these

33 Riverbank Review

Incarnation Perez. She has it in for him from her first visit to his classroom, when he impulsively pulls her into his jitterbug demonstration. What the for­ midable Madame Perez never comes to understand is that Noel's unorthodox teaching methods are the very reason why some of the coupons she finds so ;·' ,lif : appalling are hardly ever used: "The 1 . students didn't need the 'coupon for not listening in class,' because the classes were too interesting. They didn't need the'coupon for skipping a day ofschool,' Illustration by Meilo So, because they wanted to come too much." from The Ugly Duckling The teacher tries repeatedly to help his dour, rather pathetic boss see that frenetic adolescence and approaches can always pull out the coupon books "life just isn't that serious." Yet she maturity, the illustrations seem to open their teacher distributed at the begin­ still manages to force him into retire­ up; featuring fewer elements and larger ning of the school year and flip to "One ment when the school year is over. This details, these paintings convey the seren­ coupon for copying from your neigh­ doesn't mean A Book of Coupons ends ity that befits a no-longer-ugly bird. In bor." Those who have already used that on a down note. On the contrary, some the final spread, So's brilliant use of neg­ particular coupon still might not think readers might find Monsieur Noel's ative space gently frames the swan and the test is such a bad deal, because, over final speech about using, not hoarding, his reflection within a fringe oflilacs, and the course of this buoyant short novel, all the coupons life gives you a little the closing words echo the pleasure read­ Monsieur Noel manages to persuade too rah-rah for their taste. Then again, ers will experience in this special edition them that he-that any teacher-is like passion and enthusiasm are what this of a familiar tale: "I never knew," he Santa Claus. (His festive last name can't man is all about. His smiling, grandfa­ said. "When I was the ugly duckling, be just a coincidence.) "I'm giving away therly face would be the perfect illus­ I never knew there was such hap­ penmanship and spelling. I'm giving tration to accompany a definition of piness as this." away math and science. I'm giving away Joie de vivre. -Kathryne Beebe everything life has taught me," he - Renie Victor exclaims to his skeptical students on the first day of school. Monsieur Noel Dancing in Cadillac Light may not be handing out Game Boys or By Kimberly Willis Holt candy bars, but it doesn't take long for PUTNAM the class to realize that what he does A Book of Coupons 176pages, Age JO and up, $15.99 have to offer is pretty incredible. By Susie Morgenstern ISB N 0-399-23402-0 Translated from the French and illus­ Illustrated by Serge Bloch trated with effervescent black-and-white It's the summer of 1968, and Jaynell Translated by Gill Rosner sketches, A Book of Coupons resists be­ Lambert is a girl whose body, mind, and VIKING coming a mere "learning is power" public world are all on the brink of change. 64 pages, Ages 9-12, $12.99 service announcement by celebrating It's the summer her father stops calling ISBN 0-670-89970-4 goofing off as well as studying hard. her "boy"; it's the summer before a Most children would call it a dirty trick Monsieur Noel's coupons for "skip­ man walks on the moon; and it's the if you told them you were going to give ping a day of school" or "telling a lie" or summer that Grandpap moves in and them a present and then handed them a "singing at the top of your lungs wher­ stuns the family with his purchase of a spelling test. The students in Monsieur ever you like" probably wouldn't go 1962 Cadillac convertible. As 1968 Noel's fifth-grade class might see the over well at a traditional institution of ends and 1969 begins, the upheaval of situation differently. For one thing, if learning, and in fact they don't make a Jaynell's world intensifies as she deals they aren't prepared for the test, they big hit with his principal, the grim with the death of her grandfather while

34 Winter 2001 - 2002

attempting to maintain her balance as island home off the coast of Washing­ weekends with Harley and Autumn. Their her emotions undergo the normal up­ ton state, and to imagine the rhythms of friend Forrest, an artist who lives in the heaval of adolescence. her life with her father, Harley, in their lighthouse cottage, is an intriguing char­ Grandpap's Cadillac is the central cabin with its woodstove, its outhouse, acter who has always got something symbol in the story, functioning as an and its shower rigged up on the porch. brewing, whether it be soup, herb tea, or emblem of both the realization of Her mother works at the whale museum handmade paper-all made with ingre­ dreams and the need for second chances. on nearby San Juan Island, spending dients grown or foraged on the little Even after Grandpap is gone and the Cadillac is sold, the car remains a pres­ ence in the novel, a reminder of the ways in which it fulfilled each family member's dearest wish and a testament to an individual's ability to turn his or her life around. Although Kimberly Willis Holt's nar­ rative relies a bit on cliches, the satisfying characterization and vivid setting lift the novel up. The book is distinctly southern in flavor, from the language to the metaphors to the location itself, and Holt successfully establishes the Texas setting from the out­ set. "I twas July," she writes, "hot as cinders. Uncle Floyd called July ' Wft Dog Days' because all month long the air smelled like a stinky mutt caught in the rain." This novel simultaneously consid­ ers the past, the present, and the future. It opens on the threshold of a new era and closes in a changed world-one that has seen a man walk on the moon. While the story moves forward, it also pays attention to the past and to the need for remembering what was in order to create a wiser present and future. Indeed, it is the revelation of Grandpap's histo­ ry that enables Jaynell to cross into young adulthood, as she is forced to reevaluate her narrow assumptions about the world. -jenny Sawyer

Equinox By Monte Killingsworth H ENRY H OLT 118 pages, Age 12 and up, $16.95 ISBN 0-8 050-61 53 -3

Equinox rewards a close reading. It is a pleasure to learn the geography and weather of fourteen-year-old Autumn's

35 Riverbank Review island. Forrest encourages Autumn to cues her, and, as we learn in the epi­ The Land keep a journal of writing and drawings, logue, helps see to it that when she goes By Mildred D. Taylor and one distinctive aspect of this novel to live on San Juan Island she gets into PHYLLIS FOGELMAN/ PENGUIN PUTNAM is the way it takes journal keeping as its an arts high school. Almost lost in the 392 pages, Age 12 and up, $17. 99 subject. Monte Killingsworth tells his twists and turns of Autumn's thinking ISBN 0-8037-1950-7 story in Autumn's present-tense narra­ are revelations that precede the crisis tion, but the novel is an account of her that drives her out into the storm: she With The land, Mildred Taylor continues keeping a journal, not the journal learns how her mother became preg­ her Logan family saga by moving back in itself: "The light is thick and green on nant at eighteen, when she had known time to the years immediately following the page. The pen glides .... I want to Harley for only a few months, how she the Civil War to tell the story of Paul­ look at this page tomorrow or next disappeared and returned with her baby, Edward, Cassie Logan's grandfather. The week or when I'm an old woman and be how Harley has struggled to keep the son ofa white daddy and his former slave, very sure that what I see then is exactly three together. Paul-Edward is raised in a way that was how I'm feeling right now." Certain confusions arise from Killings­ not typical at the time. He is privileged The story unfolds in a week's time. worth' s interesting novel. Is Autumn and educated: his white half brothers On Sunday, Autumn thinks she under­ skipping school during this mid-Sep­ teach him what they learn at school, and stands the problem: her father wants to tember week? Even careful readers may their father encourages Paul-Edward's leave their isolated home and move to not understand whether several weeks education and takes him along on busi­ the larger San Juan Island. By Friday or a year and several weeks have passed ness excursions. But he is also black in a afternoon, she has learned more com­ between the final chapter and the epi­ post-Civil War South, where slaves may plicated truths about the adults in her logue.Jennifer Danza's delicate pen-and­ have been legally free but were certainly life. When she discovers that her mother ink artwork appears to simply illustrate not treated as equals or even, in many is involved in a long-term lesbian rela­ the story until, in the epilogue (a hand­ cases, as human beings. Although Paul­ tionship with a young woman Autumn written letter from Autumn to Harley) Edward's early family life seems almost considers a friend, the distraught girl the drawings are presented as Autumn's idyllic, adolescence brings home the nearly drowns in a storm at high tide own work. harsh realities of his situation and he is on the autumnal equinox. Forrest res- -Susan Marie Swanson forced to acknowledge his lack of accep­ tance by both blacks and whites, even his most trusted and beloved white brother. Blacks distrust his whiteness, whites dis­ criminate against him because of his blackness, and passing as white is danger­ ous.Paul-Edward needs to find in himself the strength to craft the life that he wants, The for society is determined to thwart him. We follow Paul-Edward as he leaves Early his family and their Georgia land, using his riding ability to find a place as a Bird ProjectM horse trainer, then to the backbreaking labor in a lumber camp, his success at A groundbreaking approach making furniture, and his struggle to to choosing and using the best of books, clear forty acres in Mississippi in order to have some land of his own. All the while readying preschoolers to read and succeed. he is engaged in an unending struggle to live with dignity. Paul-Edward's close Free brochures are available for early childhood friendship with Mitchell, with whom he educators, family literacy leaders, grew up, his growing love for Caroline, who will eventually become his wife, and parents by calling (952) 932-9572. and his passion for the land he is deter­ mined to own- with its beautiful tree-

36 Winter 2001 - 2002 ringed meadow (the setting of Taylor's ty. The mouse and his child, after being their victory over the junkyard rats that Song of the Trees)-all express his char­ crushed at Christmastime and thrown would deny them their happiness. acter. Though he struggles against in the trash by humans, desperately The novel was first published in fierce odds, it comes as no surprise hope for the day when they will be 1967 with illustrations by Lillian Hoban. that Paul-Edward endures. His quali­ "self-winding" and have a "territory" to In this marvelous redesign, 2001 Calde­ ties are mirrored in the character of his call home; flesh-and-blood readers cott Medalist David Small (illustrator of descendants, whom many readers root for the mechanical underdogs, for Judith St. George's So Jim Wint to Be already know-David Logan and his daughter, Cassie, in the trilogy that begins with Roll ef Thunder, Hear My will be a favorite Cry. To read Paul-Edward's story is to " ... this understand the source of the determi­ dinosaur book for years to come."* nation, pride, and strength of the Logan family as it continues through Cassie and her brothers. Mildred Taylor is arguably one of the most important authors of our time. No other has so carefully chroni­ cled the aftermath of the Civil War and the beginnings of the civil rights move­ ment. In The Land, as in her other works, Taylor creates setting through careful attention to details of time and place. Although the first-person point of view in The Land doesn't produce as compelling a narrator as Cassie in Roll ofThunder, Hear My Cry, Paul-Edward's story is integral to the Logan saga, and it engages key threads of our history and identity as a nation. -Lee Galda

The Mouse and His Child By Russell Hoban Illustrated by David Small A RTHUR A. L EVlNEISCHOLASTIC 244 pages, Ages 9-12, $16.95 By Barbara Kerley • Illustrated by Brian Selznick Ages 6 a nd Up • 0-4 39- 11 494-2 • 16.95 singular The Mouse Russell Hoban's * "What a marvelous pairing: the life of the nineteenth-century British and His Child borrows motifs of classic dinosaur maven Waterhouse Hawkins and Selznick's richly evocative, children's literature-talking toys, ani­ Victorian inspired paintings.... Appealing on many levels ..." mal communities, and the tension -Booklist, starred r eview between mortality and the longing for * "[Kerley] suffuses her text with a contagious sense of wonder and eternal life-and infuses them with a amazement.... [an] extraordinary volume." - *Publishers Weekly, starred r evi ew darker sensibility. The novel forebodes an ill wind in the willows. But as it * " ... one of the strangest true stories dinosaur lovers will ever read ... creative decisions in illustration, bookmaking and design .... electri­ to rejects sentimentality and lays waste fying, wordless, double-page spreads ... stunning." na"ivete, this story of two clockwork -Kirkus Rruiews, starred r e,;ew mice, linked at the hands in a perpetu­ .. SCHOLASTIC www.scholastic.com Scholastic Press -=- al dance, has a haunting, surreal beau-

37 Riverbank Review

and his child endure rust and break­ Hawkes that capture the classic atmos­ age. And whereas the original had phere of the stories' settings. only modest pictures interspersed While the stories in A Necklace of with the written text, Small pro­ Raindrops are simple enough for begin­ vides each of the ten chapters with ning readers (one actually begins "The a full-page opening image and a cat sat on the mat"), they are much more captioned three-quarter spread, in than reading exercises. The mat in this addition to inset illustrations. Small story happens to be a wishing mat, and emphasizes the diminutive size of before the story ends, a fairy, an old bus, the tin mice by dwarfing them in and a bit of magic have combined to cre­ the space of the pages, and he ate an imaginative and unconventional acknowledges their tenuous exis­ narrative from an unassuming start. tence in pictures of their ragged, Aiken's sharp-witted fancy can always slouching enemy Manny Rat (attired be counted on to transform the ordinary in a "greasy scrap of silk paisley into the extraordinary. In "The Baker's tied with a dirty string"), an army of Cat," Mrs. Jones bakes yeast buns one bloodthirsty shrews, a toy elephant rainy day with no help from her cat, Mog. losing her plush coating and falling "Don't sit on the buns, Mog," says into decrepitude, and a rowdy crowd Mrs. Jones. The buns begin to rise, and of predators and rodents at an we find out matter-of-factly that "this is Illustration by David Small, from absurdist performance by two crows what yeast does. It makes bread and The Mouse and His Child (the Caws of Art Experimental buns and cakes swell up and get bigger Theatre Group) in which a rabbit is and bigger." Mrs. Jones shoos Mog out­ President?) approaches The Mouse and literally savaged to death by his critics. side into the rain so she can bake in His Child with due respect and a com­ The Mouse and His Child is a master­ peace, but Mog (who likes water) makes mendable trace of humility. Small re­ piece, and David Small (and the editorial­ no effort to stay dry and returns with a imagines the existentialist characters production team at Scholastic) have sniffle. Mrs. Jones, concerned, gives and shadowy scenery, alternating grainy done a worthy job of refreshing it. This charcoal and ink wash. His smoky illus­ wonderful new design never intrudes, trations replace the original book's but in fact enlarges the classic text. crosshatched pen-and-ink sketches, but -Nathalie op de Beeck rather than attempt to erase the memo­ ry of the original work, Small creates Necklace of Raindrops pictures that resonate with the previous and Other Stories compositions. Those who are familiar By Joan Aiken with the old illustrations may experi­ Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes ence a sense of deja vu upon encounter­ KNO PF ing Small's fluid drawing of a blue jay 96pages, Ages 9-12, $15.95 who works as a town crier, his twin por­ 0-375-80584-2 traits of an owl snatching and later drop­ ping the book's bullfrog-oracle, and his Trust Joan Aiken to take the simple rendering of that crucial plot device, the structure of easy-reader prose and turn Bonzo Dog Food can, with its mirror it into art-droll, enchanting, absorb­ images that descend toward infinity, ing art. In A Necklace ofRaindrops, the conceptualized as "the last visible dog." award-winning author of The Wolves of Small pays homage to the thirty­ Willoughby Chase offers up a collection four-year-old book, but makes sweep­ of stories delightful in their whimsy ing changes, too. In this edition, unlike and wry in their wit. This reissue of a the first, there is no map of the dystopi­ volume first published in 1968 features Illustration by Kevin Hawkes, from an hundred-acre wood where the mouse fine pen-and-ink illustrations by Kevin Necklace of Raindrops and Other Stories

38 OF SOUND MIND THE REVENGE OF Jean Ferris RANDAL REESE-RAT * "Both a thought-provoking study of just Tor Seidler when being deaf matters and when it Pictures by Brett Helquist does not, and an unusually rich coming­ 'The fun is in the magnificently ratty details, of-age story that explores universal the subtle wordplay and in the chance to visit issues of family responsibility, emotional ratdom . .. This is not classic quest fantasy maturation, love, and loss." with good versus evil but a more charming - lStarred, Booklist and lovable fantasy with bad doings by $16.00 I 0-374-35580-0 I Ages 12 up relatively good rats and good doings by relatively bad ones." -Kirkus Reviews CORAM BOY $16.00 I 0-374-36257-2 I Ages 8 up Jamila Gavin * "Gavin paints low-life characters THE BOY IN THE BURNING HOUSE every bit as seductively as the high-society Tim Wynne-Jones variety ... The disparate threads of her * "Wynne-Jones is known for his quirky, narrative join together into a seamless offbeat characters, and this book does not whole." -Starred, Publishers Week(y disappoint ... A gripping, fast-moving plot "This historical novel , winner of the 2000 that offers the pure adrenaline rush of a Whitbread Award, deals with one of the thriller." - 3Starred, The Horn Book more lurid and fascinating bits of English $16.00 I 0-374-30930-2 I Ages 10 up history." -Kirkus Reviews Melanie Kroupa Books $19 .00 I 0-374-31544-2 I Ages 12 up

TENDER Valerie Hobbs * "Fresh, believable situations . .. [and) characters with, well, character, worthy of our caring." -Starred, The Bulletin of the Center for Children 's Books "A taut psychological drama ... A thought-provoking, emotionally stirring read." - 2Publishers Week(y $18.00 I 0-374-37397-3 I Ages 12 up Frances Foster Books

FARRAR• STRAUS• GIROUX Riverbank Review

Mog warm milk with yeast in it, for that involves the entire town. tling the intelligence of its intended "yeast is good for people when they are A floating apple pie, a magic quilt, young audience, A Necklace ef Rain­ ill." In Aiken's imagination, yeast does­ a one-legged house that hops, and drops offers the pure enjoyment of n't just work on bread: the combina­ other fairy-tale delights inhabit the story and language with a child's sense tion of a warm fire and a tummy full of other seven stories in this collection­ of humor and love of the unusual. This yeast gives rise to a cat of surprising each just the right length to read before is a collection to treasure. proportions and results in an event bed. Without talking down to or belit- -Kathryne Beebe

2001 National Parents Wanted By George Harrar Book Award MILKWEED Finalist 23 9 pages, Age JO and up, $17. 95 ISBN 1-57 131-632-9 "Haunting grace ... exquisite After an early childhood punctuated voice." New York Times Book by abuse from his birth parents and, Review 2001 Kiriyama Prize later, a string of unsuccessful foster Notable Book *"A beautifully home experiences, twelve-year-old Andy wri tten and affecting work." Fleck is ready to find a real family and School Library Journal "An to embrace the safety and security that important new voice in Asian comes with adoption. But Andy isn't American children's litera­ ready for rules-or the trust required for a stable, loving parent-child rela­ ture." VOYA *"A beautiful tionship. A final chance comes in the novel." Book list "Remarkable form of Jeff and Laurie, a couple who and important." Brock Cole can't have children of their own, who "A must read ." Korean agree to stick it out with Andy despite Quarterly "Real, painful , and his many behavioral problems, in hopes beautiful. " Norma Fox Mazer of establishing a solid relationship that "Touching ... subtle but pow· will eventually result in adoption. erful." JADE Magaz ine Andy's tendency to test the rules and to push his foster parents to the *"Astonishing and memo­ limit sparks a series of incidents that rable." The Horn Book Magaz ine jeopardize his last opportunity to find "Poignant. " Bulletin of the Center a family of his own, culminating in for Children's Books Andy's decision to trump up sexual *"Triumphant and consistently abuse charges against his foster father. absorbing." Publishers Weekly Andy's false accusations stem from his "Vivid present-tense narrative." fear of rejection, and as events come to Riverbank Review "Short, powerful a head with an investigation by social strokes of language propel us services and the possibility of losing Jeff and Laurie altogether, Andy is great distances." Chris Lynch forced to reevaluate his ideas about "Haunting." aMagazine. "Beautifully parents and to accept the fact that, written-sometimes funny, always finally, there are two adults who will moving." Jacqu eline Woodson love him unconditionally. The first-person narrative captures the frenetic pace and often disjointed Front Street thought patterns of Andy's hyperac­ www.frontstreetbooks.com tive mind. Although Andy's attention II Distributed by Publishers Group West 40 Winter 2001-2002 deficit disorder is not explored overtly, adolescence. As far as Gardner is con­ have always been close, and Gardner's George Harrar does a superb job of cerned, being fourteen is difficult enough, admiration for his dad makes it diffi­ enabling the reader to understand the but now his father has lost his job and cult for him to recognize that his dad is way Andy's mind works (and, conse­ can't seem to find himself. Troubled by just as full of doubts and anxieties as he quently, the impetus for much of his his father's almost adolescent disaffec­ is himself. behavior). Slowly but surely, as Andy tion with life, Gardner alternates between As his father plunges deeper into settles down, so too does the narra­ compassion and anger. The two of them midlife crisis, Gardner struggles to adjust tive, and although Andy still has a lot of growing up to do, the novel's end­ 2001 National Book ing is hopeful. Harrar's adeptness at probing the Award Finalist minds of his characters extends beyond the thoughts of his protagonist; he also 2001 Boston Globe­ proves adroit at developing and portray­ Horn Book Award ing the emotions of foster parents strug­ gling with a difficult child. Jeff and Laurie "Each poem stands as a finely wrought are just as unsure as Andy is-they're whole of such high caliber that one can just as vulnerable, and they want just as hardly name a favorite." The Horn Book much for everything to work out. Ulti­ Magazine "Inspired ... The poems ... seem mately, their wisdom sparks the change not works of artifice, but honest statements in Andy. Laurie says, "It's not enough to of pure, natural truths. " School Library say the words. You have to treat us as *"Resonance and heart." Bulletin your parents." Occurring at the climax journal of the novel, Laurie's statement estab­ of the Center for Children 's Books "Oh, lishes a sense of parental control and Marilyn Nelson, what a magnificent job mutual understanding in this fledgling you have done to bring the past so alive it family. It also reveals her as a person looks like our future." Nikki Giovanni Andy can both trust and respect. "Strong and lyrical. " The Shy Librarian Parents Wanted provides a sympa­ "Tremendous creativity and imagination." thetic but unflinching look at the chal­ Cooperative Children's Book Center lenges faced by a child and his foster "Movingly revives [Carver's] reputation:' While Andy's story has a parents. Booklist. "Uncommon sensitivity and soul. " happy ending, the realism and honesty O YA "Nelson has crafted spare, singing prevent this novel from seeming for­ mulaic. Harrar has written a powerful book about second chances, trust, and redemption, and about the difficulty of building a family. -Jenny Sauryer

Run If You Dare By Randy Powell FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX 192 pages, Age 12 and up, $17.00 ISBN 0-374-39981-6

Like Randy Powell's other novels, Run If You Dare contains interesting charac­ ters, clever dialogue, and a plot that twists humor through the various tragedies of

41 Riverbank Review

to the changes in his own life. He learns comfortable enough to know that friends, bibliophile grandmother, iras­ to accept his mother's new responsibil­ while no life is perfect, his is very cible grandfather, and two devoted ities as a wage earner, negotiates the much worth living. "Like Dad said," aunts; and his own reading of the essay complexities of a teenager's social life, he observes, "I'll take what's left of he is writing for his English teacher, and searches for self-definition, which my life and run with it." which begins, "I grew up in a house for him involves chopping wood and -lee Galda built of voices." running cross-country. As Gardner's Voices have always been important muscles become more defined, so does Seek to Rob. His father, a radio host, left the his sense of self. family when Rob was just a baby, leav­ By Paul Fleischman The first-person narration allows CRICKET BOOKS ing behind a tape of one of his radio Powell to express Gardner's quirky 176 pages, Age 12 and up, $16.95 shows. Rob, burning with the desire to and poignant perspective and makes ISBN 0-8126-4900-1 know his father, becomes obsessed with the reader care about what happens to the radio and spends hours listening, this good kid caught in a situation he Those who are familiar with Paul Fleisch­ scanning the country, hoping to hear hasn't chosen and is afraid to under­ man's work know that he writes to be his father's voice and thus to claim his stand. As he and his family struggle heard as we ll as read. Seek is his newest own past. Yet, when his father does through this new phase of life, they experiment with reading as perfor­ fina lly contact him, Rob rebuffs him, do so with humor, affection, and mance, and it succeeds beautifully. The not out of anger b ut because he has occasional anger. They could be us. story is constructed as a collage of voices come to realize that he is complete, At the novel's end the family is still and sounds. We get to know high even without him. together, and Dad has found a job school senior Rob's life story through There is, of course, much more­ that he is trying to enjoy. Gardner is conversations he has with his divorced Rob's mother finally remarries, Rob more comfortable in his maturity, mother; the comments of his close becomes involved in high school life and has a romance himself-but the compelling narrative line is his discov­ ery of himself through his pursuit of his father. The fifty-two characters in COMING UP Seek build a sound mosaic that reveals IN THE the complexity of one person and his SPRING ISSUE life. They also speak of their own lives and the times in which they live, some­ RIV ERBANK R EVIEW times with pathos, often with humor. ~ Read silently, the novel is an engaging, beautifully crafted story. Read aloud as The 2002 a performance piece, the story will be amplified by the power of its many dis­ Children's Books tinctive individual voices. of Distinction Awards -leeGalda Outstanding books The from the past year in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants the categories of By Ann Brashares picture books, fiction, D ELACORTF nonfiction, and poetry 294 pages, Age 12 and up, $14.95 ISBN 0-385-72933-2

For a list ofaward finalists and information on other upcomingfeatures, For Lena, Bridget, Carmen, and Tibby, visit our Web site at www.riverbankreview.com. the summer that begins with discovery in the form of a worn pair of blue jeans on a thrift store shelf evolves into four

42 Winter 2001-2002 different odysseys of growth and self­ whimsical, lighthearted subject matter, a society in which girls are bombarded discovery, four journeys fueled with a this is an intelligent novel that under­ by images that foster dissatisfaction little help from a magic pair of pants stands both its characters and its audi­ and self-hatred, and Brashares conveys ("the Pants"). Actually, the only magical ence. The girls' "manifesto of the it with subtlety and sensitivity. aspect of the Pants is their unusual abil­ Pants" sums it up best: "Remember: Despite a somewhat disappointing ity to fit and flatter each one of the four Pants = love. Love your pals. Love conclusion, The Sisterhood of the Travel­ friends. But this small miracle is magic yourself." It's an important message in ing Pants is both a sweet story and a tes- enough for four girls who haven't spent a summer apart since birth. In a pact made the night before they go their separate ways, the girls agree to SHARON CREECH keep the jeans traveling among them, each wearing (never washing) the Pants ~\II~ for two weeks before sending them ~~ " Creech continues to explore new writing paths with her latest [novel], along to the next person on the circuit. written as free verse from the viewpoint of The Pants, indeed, seem to be "infused a middle-school boy named Jack. Jack's with the promises of summer." class assignments incorporate responses The magic of the Pants plays itself to eight well-known poems (included in out in different ways as the summer LOVE an appendix) and gradually reveal the progresses, but in their varied experiences circumstances, and Jack's hidden feelings, -from soccer camp in Baja, Califor­ about the loss of his beloved dog ... . nia, to vacation at the home of grand­ THAT This really special triumph is bound to be parents in the Grecian countryside­ widely esteemed by Creech's devoted the girls look to the Pants for the same readers. " -Starred review I Kirkus Reviews things: pluck, understanding of them­ DOG ~\II~ ::::*~ " By exposing Jack and readers to selves, and a reminder of their friend­ the range of poems that moves Jack, ship. In short, the path the Pants take Creech conveys a life truth: pain and joy not only traces the adventures (and a n o v e I exist side by side. For Jack and for misadventures) of four friends, it also readers, the memory of that dog lives on highlights the universality of the girls' in his PQetry. Readers will love that dog, experiences and the ways in which their and this book." love for one another proves to be uncon­ -Starred review I Publishers Weekly ~\II~ fined by the limits of time or place. ~~ "Creech has created a poignant, Ann Brashares deftly fleshes out funny picture of a child's encounter with the personality of each of the four the power of poetry. This book is a tiny friends over the course of the narra­ treasure. " tive. As Lena, Bridget, Carmen, and -Starred review I School Library Journal Tibby's characters emerge, so too do Ages 8-12. $14.95 Tr (0-06-029287-3) they change; the girls' thought pro­ $14.89 Lb (0-06-029289-X) cesses and behaviors mature over the ----Among Sharon Creech's Novels----.. course of the summer. For Lena, this Walk Two Moons means getting over her fear of boys. 1995 Newbery Award Bridget reevaluates her impetuous be­ Ages 8-12. $15.95 Tr (0-06-023334-6); $15.89 Lb (0-06-023337-0); havior. Carmen comes to terms with $5.95 Pb (0-06-440517-6) change and disappointment, and The Wanderer A 2001 Newbery Honor Book learns to trust again. And Tibby finds Ages 8-12. $15.95 Tr (0-06-027730-0); $15.89 Lb (0-06-027731-9) the meaning of happiness and the courage to embrace it. =: Joanna Cotler Books An imprint ofHarperCollinsPublishers The book is humorous, irreverent, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 • www.harperchildrens.com bittersweet-and wise. In spite of its

43 Riverbank Review tament to the emotional distances we essay about reintroduction of the look this collection would be to miss a travel on the path to maturity. bison looks to the future. valuable contribution. As Sherry Gar­ - Jenny Sawyer The writing is mostly effective, land writes in the book's introduction, often very powerful. While the poetry is too many of us think ofVietnam mere­ easily accessible, it is Stories from Where We Live: not up to the cal­ ly as the battleground of a war that iber of the prose in this collection, The Great North American Prairie but ceased more than twenty-five years this is a small complaint given the book's ago. Children Edited by Sara St. Antoine of the Dragon highlights many strengths. the variety Maps by Paul Mirocha and richness of a four-thou­ Trudy Nicholson's animal illustra­ sand-year-old culture-one Illustrated by Trudy Nicholson in which MILKWEED tions subtly return the reader to the the word Tet brings to mind a time of 2 62 pages, Age 9 and up, $19. 9 5 book's organizing concept, the eco­ festival and renewal as opposed to a ISBN 1-57131-630-2 region we call prairie. military action. Appendixes and ecoregion maps are The tales in Children of the Dragon As the poet Gary Snyder has observed, excellent tools that prepare classroom have been passed down orally for gen­ "Nature is not a place to visit. It is our teachers or homeschoolers to integrate erations. Garland, who has worked home." The Great North American the book into their teaching-be it sci­ with Vietnamese immigrants for sever­ Prairie is part ofa remarkable publishing ence, geography, or literature-and al years and has spent time in Vietnam, adventure called "The World as Home." provide any reader with context. One offers these stories to a new audience in Other books in the "Stories from Where appendix introduces prairie ecology, lively prose that asks to be read aloud. We Live" anthology series include The and another maps the setting of each A range of folktales are included, from North Atlantic Coast and The California text. In addition, readers are directed to charming pourquoi legends (how the Coast. Soon there will be more. They the "World as Home" Web site (www tiger got its stripes, why there is a man are all intended to connect young .worldashome.org), where they will in the moon) to tales that gently illus­ American readers to the regions of the find extensive instructional guides to trate the perils ofgreed or the rewards of land we inhabit. Each book is a feast of each anthology. kindness. Some stories, such as "The stories, poems, and excerpts from jour­ The Great North American Prairie, an Legend of the Monsoon Rains," are nals and memoirs. exceptional collection that capitalizes specific to Vietnam, while others, like In its quiet but exuberant way, this on young readers' inherent interest in "The Bowmen and the Sisters," are book speaks to one of our nation's the natural world, is a strong resource strikingly similar to fairy tales in other great needs: to reinhabit the land we for both learners and teachers of any parts of the world. Some are written in have paved and ploughed. Until we age or disposition. the spirit of the darker Grimm tales­ "know" the identity of our places, -john Caddy happy endings are not guaranteed. In beyond their cityscapes and highways, the haunting "The Boatman's Flute," we will not be truly home. true Nonfiction & love exists but is not acknowledged Editor Sara St. Antoine gives us until it is too late. Notes at the end of selections that range widely in time, Traditional Literature each chapter provide a frame of refer­ from Plains Indian traditional songs to ~ ence for readers unfamiliar with Viet­ Willa Cather and Hamlin Garland in namese culture. the 1890s and early 1900s, Carl Sand­ Children of the Dragon: While Garland's characters inhabit burg and Hal Borland at midcentury, Selected Tales from Vietnam archetypal folktales, they also retain and Louise Erdrich and others from By Sherry Garland their own identities, a quality en­ the present era. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman hanced by Trina Schart Hyman's ac­ Farm girls-cutting hay, driving H ARCOURT rylic and ink illustrations. The charac­ big machines, working with horses­ 64 pages, Ages 9-12, $18.00 ters' expressive eyes and distinct are omnipresent. The book is solidly ISBN 0- 15-224200-7 personalities are characteristic of inclusive: traditional Native American Hyman's art. Most of the illustrations songs and tales, a black homesteader At first glance, Children of the Dragon are modest in size; they enhance the community, the European immigrant might seem to be simply the latest stories without overwhelming them. A experience with sod huts and High addition to the ever-growing pile of few of the larger ones are striking: a Plains blizzards are all represented. An multicultural folktales-yet to over- half-page illustration for "Chu Cuoi-

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D Check enclosed. 0 Bill me later. Drop this card in the mail or send with a check to the address on the back. For more information, call (612) 486-5690. Riverbank Review "A young white girl witnesses the integration of her public school in the early 1960s South •••• a genuinely moving tale about the necessity to reach out to others, even when it is difficult." -Kirkus Reviews

"Martin • • • emphasizes the strength Belle Teal finds with the women of her family and shows a simple acceptance of life's difficulties, an approach that shows respect for young readers. • •• this is a solid piece of work with an absorbing plot." -School Library Journal

Ages 10-14 • 0-439-09823-8 • $15.95

*"Preteens will relate to Belle Teal, whose observations and realizations provide an eye-opening introduction to social and personal injustice." - Publishers Weekly*, starred review Scholastic Press Riverbank Review

The Man in the Moon," in which a tall The identity of a people finds voice The Dinosaurs of young Chu Cuoi converses with an in the stories they tell. Garland and Waterhouse Hawkins old man framed by a wreath of pink Hyman's work fills a significant void, By Barbara Kerley and yellow blossoms, firewood, and offering American readers a view of Illustrated by Brian Selznick red and gold good-luck banners, is Vietnamese culture from within its SCHOLASTIC notable for both its decorative detail unique storytelling tradition. 48 pages, Ages 4-8, $16.95 and its evocative feeling. -Kathryne Beebe ISBN 0-439-11494-2

This is a dinosaur book unlike any other. It begins at a time before anyone Whale Talk knew what a dinosaur looked like. In the 1850s scientists had just begun to Chris Crutcher's long-awaited new novel fill in the picture from the bits of bone and teeth that had been discovered. Enter Waterhouse Hawkins, a nat­ uralist and artist who sculpted ani­ mals. He was commissioned to build replicas of dinosaurs for ~een Vic­ toria's new museum of science and art, the Crystal Palace. With the help of paleontologist Richard Owen, Waterhouse created small models, then scaled them up to the enormous size they'd had in life. Skeletons of iron supported concrete casts made from these huge clay models. The casts were then finished and painted. The central image of the book is marvelous. To launch his dinosaurs and enhance his scientific standing, Hawkins threw a New Year's Eve party to which he invited twenty-one scien­ tists and supporters. He moved the mold of his iguanodon outdoors, put up a tent around it, and served a grand surprise dinner inside the dinosaur. A Cutter High School bus provides surprising sanctuary to seven The toast for the evening was "The unlikely members of the swim team. Why do they need sanctuary? jolly old beast is not deceased I There's Listen. It's all here in this riveting, tragic, funny page-turner of a novel. life in him again!" Waterhouse's reputa­ ~\I/~ tion was assured. :::*~ "Crutcher's gripping tale of small-town prejudice delivers a frank, powerful message about social issues and ills."-Starred review I Publishers Weekly With the success of the Crystal Palace trailing him like confetti, Hawkins "The veteran author examines how the sometimes cruel and abusive sailed for America, which had just circumstances of life affect every link in the human chain. Through it all found its first two fossil dinosaurs. In shines Crutcher's sympathy for teens and their problems." -Featured review I ALA Book/isl New York, he was invited to build more Ages 12 up. $15. 95 Tr (0-688-180 19-1 ); $15.89 Lb (0-06-029369- I) dinosaurs for exhibition in Central Park. He worked on them for two years before the project fell afoul of the cor­ ~ Greenwillow Books An imprint ofHarperCollinsPublishers 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, Y I 0019 • www.harperchildrens.com rupt politician Boss Tweed, who had his thugs sledgehammer Waterhouse's

46 Winter 2001-2002 models and casts and bury the bits in nonviolent struggle for national spiritual, rather than worldly, riches. the park, where they remain to this day. independence; and Pakistan, the Mus­ Fitting Gandhi's complicated lega­ Today Hawkins's creations still lim nation created when India was cy into the pages of a picture book stand on Dinosaur Island in Crystal divided at the end of British rule. poses many challenges. Some of the Palace Park in Sydenham. The Crystal Throughout the book, the author-artist pictures are difficult to understand, Palace itself is no more; the dinosaurs works from the premise that she states particularly images that depict civic have outlasted it, as the bones of their in her author's note: "Gandhi was strife and nonviolent resistance. For originals have outlasted time. someone who completely succeeded example, a stunning picture depicting Barbara Kerley's whimsical narrative in living his life according to the way in the plight of refugees at the division of and Brian Selznick's brilliant, quirky paint­ which he believed life should be India and Pakistan is explained only in ings lovingly tell the story of Hawkins's lived-filled with spiritual awareness, the most general terms in the text. life, and the elegant design of the book love, and peace." Demi emphasizes Gandhi's connec­ evokes Victorian England in its prime. The artwork is colored in intense tion to his mother's religious faith, -John Caddy hues-purple, red, green, pink, blue­ Jainism. Her choice to leave out any with the striking addition of gold, reference to his connections to Hindu which brings shine and luster to an array tradition allows her to emphasize her Gandhi of objects, including textiles, spinning subject's belief in "the brotherhood of By Demi musical instruments, architec­ people of all religions," but it is only M CELDERRY wheels, 40 pages, Ages 7-10, $19.95 tural details (including prison bars), partially accurate. Demi's text is sensitive to cultural ISBN 0-689-84149-3 vessels, fire. In using rich color, espe­ cially gold, in a book about a man who differences, consonant with an empha­ Demi tells the story of a deeply spiritu­ renounced worldly goods, the artist sis on spiritual tradition: "When Gand­ al life in this beautiful book, and her cleverly appropriates color to describe hi was thirteen years old, he was married approach highlights both the according to Jain tradition. promise and the difficulties His wife was Kasturbai Makan­ of its genre: picture-book ji, a beautiful thirteen-year- biography. Intertwining rich old girl who possessed quali­ illustration and concise, lyri- ties of patience, strength, cal text, such a book brings and courage." Demi empha­ its subject to life in a way that sizes how Gandhi's spiritual no ordinary prose biography life helped him cope with can. On the other hand, racism and develop as a leader. working within the confines She describes his compas­ of a short text and with an ,,- ' ~ sion for impoverished peo­ audience of young readers in ple and his spiritual prac­ mind, a picture-book biogra­ tices, including meditation phy must simplify a complex and study of the Bhagavad­ adult life, and such simplifi­ Gita. One of the most affect­ cation may be misleading. ing passages in this moving Demi's description of book is a list of the few Gandhi's spiritual life is in­ objects Gandhi possessed at spiring. She begins with maps his death: "two spoons, two on the endpapers, locating pots, three monkeys, three the countries important to books, one pocket watch, Gandhi's story: Great Britain, one pair of eyeglasses, one where he was educated; tin bowl (a souvenir from South Africa, where he prac­ prison), one desk set, two ticed law and became a social pairs of sandals," and a activist; India, the country of homespun cotton garment. his birth, where he inspired a Illustration by Demi, from Gandhi -Susan Marie Swanson

47 Riverbank Review

care of her mother in order to make her rounds through the cold and sleet. This Mobile Books woman's story-the physical hardships of her work, her relationships with those to whom she brings books, the Down Cut Shin Creek: these women (for they were primarily snippets of personal background that The Pack Horse Librarians women) in the larger cultural context flit through her mind-is as engaging as of Kentucky of the Depression era. The authors any fiction, though it is constructed By Kathi Appelt and describe both the social environment from historical material. This librarian Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer of the times and the geography of Ken­ and the book's supporting characters HARPERCOLLINS tucky in succinct and understandable come to life in a few well-chosen details; 64 pages, Ages 8-12, $16.95 language, outlining the development the poverty and grimness of daily life in ISBN 0-0602-9135-4 of President Roosevelt's Works Pro­ eastern Kentucky are further illustrated gress Administration and the particu­ by the well-placed black-and-white pho­ Hannah's Bookmobile Christmas lar problems of the people of Ken­ tos. In one haunting image, four chil­ By Sally Derby tucky. Linking the government's need dren, huddled together in bed, peer out to create Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska employment with people's from under their covers; the walls of HENRY HOLT hunger for books, the authors present a their home are covered with newspaper. 32 pages, Ages 4-7, $16.95 satisfying story that is all the more Succeeding short chapters make it ISBN 0-8050-6420-6 pleasing for being true. easy for children to absorb the infor­ Interest is sparked by the second mation that further explicates, and Those of us who live in communities chapter, "An Ordinary Day (The Way It puts into context, the librarian's story. with well-stocked libraries and book­ Might Have Been)," which follows a The authors do not shy away from the stores take for granted our access to the young librarian as she departs from unpleasant aspects oflife in rural Ken­ printed word. And in this day of home in the dark of early morning, tucky-abandoned families, moonshin­ online shopping, anybody with a com­ leaving her two small children in the ing, routine violence, daily hunger­ puter and a credit card can order just nor do they dwell on the tragedies of about anything without ever leaving many of these lives. Instead, they home. Precisely because most of us focus on the women as heroines, on cannot imagine living without books, the communities that developed around it's important to learn about a time them, and, most of all, on the great when they were precious and treasured power of the books and other materi­ for their rarity-and to be reminded als they brought to people who need­ that even today not everyone has easy ed not only to feed their bodies but access to books. also, as Eleanor Roosevelt put it, "to The well-written and movmg feed their minds." Down Cut Shin Creek is an inspiring In the fictional Hannah's Book­ story of a time not so long ago when it mobile Christmas, Hannah and her Aunt took dedication and perseverance to Mary, a bookmobile librarian, also offer bring books to people who wouldn't this sustenance. This contemporary otheiwise have them. A lively docu­ picture book, told from eight-year-old mentation of the pack horse librarians Hannah's point ofview, is a heartwanning of Kentucky, who mounted horses to Christmas story. Like the librarians of carry books and other printed materials Down Cut Shin Creek, Hannah and into remote regions of that state dur­ Photograph from Down Cut Shin Creek: Aunt Mary battle the elements to bring ing the 1930s, the book clearly places The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky books to people who can't otherwise

48 Winter 2001 - 2002

Handel, Who Knew What He Liked By M. T. Anderson Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes C ANDLEWICK 40pages, Ages 9- 12, $16.99 ISBN 0-7636-1046-1

M. T. Anderson, author of the fast-food­ slinging novel Burger Wuss, cultivates loftier tastes iri this deluxe picture book about the German composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Kevin Hawkes, illustrator of Weslandia, sets the scene with shimmering im-pressionist paintings of drawing rooms, concert halls, and magnificent palace lawns. In the manner of Sallie Ketcham and Timothy Bush's Bach's Big Adven­ ture, this project begins by demonstrat­ ing Handel's childhood boldness. Al­ though his father worried about financial security, "little Handel knew what he liked. What he liked was music. So he smuggled a clavichord up Illustration by Gabi Swiatkowska, from Hannah's Bookmobile Christmas into the attic without his parents knowing." When Handel visits an obtain them. On Christmas Eve day, ska are a highlight, especially those of estate where his brother works as a ser­ the pair set out on their rounds, keep­ the blue bus plowing through the vant, he impresses a duke by playing ing a nervous eye on the increasingly changing light and landscape as the the chapel's organ, and his music heavy snowfall as they urge on their day moves on and the ominous weath­ career takes off. elderly bus, Blue Bird. Their regular er looms, growing more treacherous Since Milos Forman's film Amadeus, clients-the local writer, the wheel­ on each page. Also distinctive are the allusions to composers' wild-at-heart chair-bound boy, the three-year-old to luminous renderings of the charac­ lifestyles are de rigueur, and this tale is whom Hannah reads-exchange books, ters' faces, with their widely set high no exception. As a young man in chat about the threatening weather, cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes. Hamburg, Handel refuses to yield his and present Hannah and her aunt with The brief afterword explains that harpsichord chair to his friend Matthe­ edible Christmas gifts. The spirit of a bookmobiles are again becoming son, who naturally demands a duel. community that has been forged popular as a way to bring books, mag­ Their courtly brawl takes place in a through a shared love of books per­ azines, videos, and CDs to urban and snowy square, lit by a midnight-blue vades the text. In the end, Hannah, rural communities where they are still evening sky and observed by a hud­ Aunt Mary, and the cat, Dickens, spend hard to come by. Like the pack horse dled crowd: "Mattheson thrust his a cozy Christmas Eve snowbound but librarians of the 1930s, bookmobile rapier right toward Handel's heart­ safe in the warm bookmobile, nour­ librarians continue to bring words but luckily the blade hit Handel's coat ished by good books and food made and pictures in contemporary forms button, and broke." Later, there's a by loving hands. to people whose lives would be poor­ hair-pulling match between two divas The beautiful acrylic paintings by er without them. in frothy lace costumes and, in Eng­ first-time illustrator Gabi Swiatkow- -Krystyna Paray Goddu land, a fireworks accident that sends concert spectators fleeing: "No one knows what Handel was doing during

49 Riverbank Review

cy, the Hallelujah Chorus. This splen­ Mimiko's calendar, which details how did costume drama plus music history she and her family-and presumably induces readers to provide the only many Japanese people-celebrate dif­ missing ingredient: a sound track. ferent events throughout the year. The -Nathalie op de Beeck simply-drawn, round-faced figures exude a genuine sweetness: even the tiger in I Live in Tokyo the Japanese zodiac wears a smile. Often a pleasing collection of objects accom­ By Mari Takabayashi H OUGHTON MIFFLI N panies Mimiko's descriptions. In Janu­ 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $16. 00 ary, for instance, when Mimiko talks ISBN 0-618-07702-2 about how her family welcomes the new year, the colorful illustrations show Oh, to be male in Japan on Valentine's examples ofJapanese New Year's cards Day! It is the custom there, seven-year­ as well as typical holiday food and an old Mimiko explains in this cheerful elaborately decorated kite and bad­ month-by-month introduction to her minton racket. In April, when Mimiko's city and culture, for girls to give choco­ class studies kanji, the characters used Illustration by Kevin Hawkes,from Handel, lates to boys on February 14. Mimiko in Japanese writing, a frame composed Who Knew What He Liked adds an aside: "This year my father gets of the characters for common words more chocolates than my brother. He (mother, sun, rye) surrounds an illustration all this. Perhaps ducking suavely to looks really happy!" Readers of I Live in depicting the students at their desks. save his wig from bright hungry sparks." Tokyo will understand how Dad feels, While I Live in Tokyo looks at tradi­ Hawkes pictures a bemused Handel because the book itself is like a box of tion, it undeniably does so from a kid's scratching his chin and watching the ex­ confections: each component of the win­ perspective, and a modern kid's at that. plosion. Readers who consult the book's ning narrative and appealing toylike In May, Mimiko discloses "My Top helpful discography can seek out Han­ illustrations is as enticing as the next. Ten Favorite Meals," and number four del's Music for Roya/Fireworks for them­ At the book's beginning, Mari Tak­ on her list is hamburger, preceded by selves and rate this unplanned light dis­ abayashi's diminutive postcard-style omelet rice, tempura, and curry rice. play against the dramatic music. scenes capture both the Tokyo shop­ Mimiko sits through her grandmoth­ Hawkes fills his candlelit images ping areas' bustling graphic overload er's tea ceremony, but admits that "the with velvety reds and lustrous golds, and the Royal Palace grounds' pastoral long ceremony gets boring and my feet and encloses the written text in orna­ tranquility. Once a sense of place is fall asleep." On the Shichigosan holi­ mental gilt frames; one glittering established, the focus quickly shifts to day in November, Mimiko at first feels spread, depicting boats on the Thames during a performance of Handel's Ulater Music, recalls N. C. Wyeth's way with color and billowing clouds. Anderson commendably avoids baroque extravagance in his wntmg, which comes with helpful footnotes defining such terms as libretto and ora­ torio. He concisely details contentious issues Qohn Gay's satirical The Beggar's Opera was a response to the perceived elitism of Handel and others), then concludes on a victorious note, with the hero composing his Messiah. Han­ del remains more an artistic force than a personality, but even the classically illiterate are likely to recognize his lega- Illustration by Kelly Dupre,from The Raven's Gift: A True Story from Greenland

50 Winter 2001-2002

"like a princess" in her kimono. Then she They have studied Inuit ways, and once along the way. Often, after an gets itchy and frustrated because she their trip is under way they are wel­ evening meal of seal, the Inuit can't run in all that confining material. comed by villagers: shared with us their stories and The book includes a short glossary legends. One of my favorites tells of Japanese words and teaches other During our visits, they taught us how the northern lights are the basic information, such as how to wear how to predict the weather and spirits of their ancestors playing a kimono. More importantly, it reveals showed us the best routes to take ball in the sky. Mimiko's everyday life as a vital, joy­ ous blend of the traditional and the new. She is at once a Japanese child and any child: she sometimes does origami after school, sometimes watches TY. Celebrate ... -Renie Victor Black History Month with The Raven's Gift: A True Story from Greenland Lee&. Low Books! By Kelly Dupre H OUGHTON MIFF LI N 32 pages, Ages 4-9, $15.00 ISBN 0-618-01171-4

The trajectory of The Raven's Gift is a clockwise loop around and through the harsh, exhilarating landscape of Greenland that begins in the child­ hood dreams of the narrator: "How far does 'far north' go? I wondered as a boy." Though author-illustrator Kelly LOVE TO LANGSTON Dupre has traveled to Greenland her­ by TONY MEDINA THE SECRET TO self, her first picture book is told in the illustrated by RENT PARTY JAZZ FREEDOM voice of Lonnie Dupre, her h usband, A.GREGORY by WILLIAM MILLER by MARCIA VAUGHAN who undertook a fifteen-month, 3,200- CHRISTIE illustrated by il lustrated by mile expedition with a companion in This inspiring biography CHARLOTIE LARRY JOHNSON 1997-98-and encountered a raven in verse tells of the RILEY-WEBB "[A] well-WTitten story ... beloved poet Langston "Dignified and joyful Johnson's expressive along the way. Hughes and shows how illustrations underscore a acrylic paintings are rich D upre's linoleum-block prints dis­ he overcame many story of a group of people in color and emotion." obstacles to follow his armingly combine whimsy and gravity. who find themselves in -School Library Journal dream of becoming a poet. While the postures and facial expres­ dire economic straits yet "Powerful and touching." sions of people and animals are often * Celebrate the lOOth rise above these limitations -Kirkus Reviews droll, the repeating patterns and irreg­ birthday of the great through their collective Harlem Renaissance poet, creative efforts." AGES 6 AND UP @ $16. 95 HC ular shapes that represent Greenland's ISBN 1-58430-021 -3 Langston Hughes, with -Kirkus Reviews waves, cliffs, and ice evoke the forbid­ the publication of AGES 6 AND UP • $16. 95 HC ding power of the Arctic. The simple LOVE TO LANGSTON! ISBN 1- 58430- 025-6 shapes of airplane, kayak, and dogsled AVAILABLE FEBRUARY l , 2002 have a welcoming clarity about them, AGES 6 AND UP @ $16.95 HC ISBN 1-58430-041 -8 inviting young readers to travel along, as do informative sidebars about Green­ Please visit us at LEE• ,.LOW BOOKS ' ® land's wildlife, history, and topography. www.leeandlow.com to learn & 95 Madison Avenue, ew York, NY 10016 Text and illustrations emphasize about additional titles with African American themes. distributed by Publishers Group West the explorers' respect for the Inuit peo­ ple who make Greenland their home.

51 Riverbank Review

While some of the book's pages expedition, he speaks softly to the bird: able to continue the difficult journey. describe months ofpreparation or weeks "I told her that I was sad, tired, and The pacing of this picture book­ of kayak paddling, in the raven story­ afraid .... As I talked, the raven looked the great leaps across time and space sur­ within-a-story each page encompasses back at me. Then, with her sharp beak, rounding this moment when time seems only a few moments. The exhausted she picked up a small rock, showed it to to stop-is its most arresting quality. We narrator encounters a raven whose foot me, and set it back down." In this may undertake grand adventures, the has become tangled in musk-ox fur. Dis­ moment, the narrator reconnects with story tells us, but their deepest significance couraged to the point ofabandoning the his strength and spirit, and finds himself may be in moments that loom large, when the world outside you and the world ~\II~ inside illuminate one another and you -;.&;- - Jiii( - Six Starred Reviews for find strength and inspiration to carry on. To incorporate such a testimony into a good-humored, informative chil­ dren's book is no small achievement. Amber Was -Susan Marie Swanson

Brave, Side by Side: Five Favorite Picture-Book Essie Was Teams Go to Work By Leonard S. Marcus WALK.ER Smart 64 pages, Age 8 and up, $22.95 The story of ISBN 0-8027-8778-9 Arn~er and Ess ie If ever a book created an occasion to to ld here in POEMS head to the library for more, this is the one. First, you'll want to check out books and PICTURES ~y created by the picture-book collabora­ tors featured in Side by Side, especially the five titles that receive close discus­ sion: Louis the Fish (Arthur Yorinks and Richard Egielski), The Glorious Flight (Alice and Martin Provensen), The Stinky Cheese Man Oon Scieszka and Lane ~ALA Booklist ='1f-::. The Bulletin Smith, with book designer Molly Leach), ~ The Horn Book -* Kirkus Reviews Sam and the Tigers Oulius Lester and :--..''u.v ~'"'-" I "'*"" Publishers Weekly ~ School Library Journa Jerry Pinkney), and The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses CToanna Cole and .. An artistic mini-epic with two mini-heroes overcu11-.i11g all odds of the Bruce Degen). You might want Where inevitably bewildering, irrepressibly hopeful journey called childhood." the Wild Things Are, since Maurice - Starred. featured review/The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Sendak mentored Yorinks and Egielski, "Poems and [black pencil and full-color] illustrations provide a and some Dr. Seuss, since Smith and portrait of close sisterly relationship that intimately and lovingly Scieszka loved his work when they draws the reader into the joys and sadness of their lives. A were kids. While you're at it, why not wonderful story, brilliantly told. " -Starred review / Kirkus Reviews look for some more titles by Leonard Marcus, who opens up a world of cre­ Ages 7 up. $15.95 Tr (0-06-029460-4); $15.89 Lb (0-06-029461-2) ativity in this new offering. Marcus explains that most picture­ Greenwillow Books An imprint of HarperCollinsPub/ishers M book teams do not work side by side like 1350 Avenue of the Americas. New York. NY 10019 • www.harperchildrens.com the writers and artists in this volume.

52 Winter 2001-2002

Instead, they work separately, under the guidance of editors. What is the point of exploring these exceptions? First of all, they make fascinating and lively stories about interesting people. More­ over, these collaborations provide an engaging context for descriptions of the work that goes into the making of picture books. Readers will learn about thumbnail sketches and dummies, and they'll get a sense of the trail of revised and abandoned drafts that writers leave behind. Finally, Marcus's descriptions of these collaborations offer insight into the creative process-which involves relationships, research, technical con­ siderations, serendipity, and hard work, as well as talent and imagination. The need for both perspiration and inspiration is apparent in the abundant illustrations. In the section on Lester and Pinkney, for example, photos of the writer and artist and reproductions from the finished book are augmented by sketches, a photo of Pinkney's grand­ son posing as Sam, and a chart present­ ing four different drafts of the opening to the story. A variety of voices emerges when Marcus quotes from his interviews with his subjects. Egielski recalls the time he needed a picture of a fish and peeled Photograph by Howard Hall/ HHP, from Swimming with Hammerhead Sharks the label off a can of salmon in the gro­ cery store (he was on a tight budget at the time). We get a feel not only for the Swimming with the mysteries of ocean life can help us banter but also for the tireless persis­ Hammerhead Sharks preserve that life. This book follows two tence that characterizes the collaboration By Kenneth Mallory strands, one science, one education: of Smith and Scieszka: "Doing humor," H OUGHTON MIFFLIN first, the hammerhead studies of field observes Scieszka, "is like ditch digging! 48 pages, Ages 9-12, $16.00 scientist Pete Klimley and, second, the You do it over and over again until you ISBN 0-618-05543-6 making of the IMAX film Island ofthe get to the bottom of the thing." Alice Sharks at Cocos Island off Costa Rica. Provensen describes the depth of her This book, one of the Scientists in the Hammerheads, among the most bond with her late husband and col­ Field series, is a welcome antidote to sociable of sharks, spend much of their laborator: "Martin and I really were one shark hysteria. Kenneth Mallory places lives in large schools that concentrate at artist." Throughout, we find the thought­ the fish in its ocean context, as an ani­ certain volcanic islands. The "sea-mount" ful voice of Marcus, who offers straight­ mal beautifully adapted to its niche. of Espiritu Santo in the Gulf of Cali­ forward explanations and descriptions, Superb photographs highlight nearly fornia is the site ofK!imley's research. assuring that none of his readers, young every page. Clear demonstrations of scientific or old, will feel left out. The ocean, still largely unexplored, inquiry-asking questions, forming -Susan Marie Swanson is filled with mysteries. Solving some of hypotheses, then designing experiments

53 Riverbank Review to test them-are at the core of this book per's 1930 painting Early Sunday Morn­ witnessed by the mischievous iguana, and the series; they present science as it ing. In Voices, Angela Johnson writes which appears in one form or another happens in the field, allowing scientists to eloquently about her urban communi­ on every page. The poems, given in both take off their lab coats. Mallory does a ty in response to artist Faith Ringgold's Spanish and English, are short, sweet, fine job of sharing his excitement as he warm mixed-media piece titled From and evocative of the season as it is experi­ dives off Cocos Island with the sharks. Above, which shows an African Ameri­ enced in the barrio and the Buena Vista Hammerheads are fascinating; I've can family enjoying an evening meal Bilingual School, where the children of wondered most of my life why their on the rooftop of their city home. migrant farmworkers sometimes attend. heads are built like a double-headed Impressions contains responses both Personal identity, and the way it claw hammer, and now I know. As they visual and visceral, such as Jane Yolen's connects to the identity of a place, is swim along, they wag their odd heads plea to "look beyond the eyes, to see highlighted in "San Francisco," as a boy from side to side to sense their paths. It who looks out at you" in response to named Francisco (like the poet) cele­ has to do with magnetism. For more, Grant Wood's American Gothic. Expres­ brates the fact that the city is named you'll have to read the book. sions connects the reader to both the after him: "here everybody I knows how -John Caddy artists and their forms, while the poets' to I spell my name." In "In My Barrio." words further engage us in the actual you can hear experience of making art. Hettie Jones the music understands this as she reflects on Open of life Drawer by Elizabeth Murray-"What's coming out to be done with our lives? I Oh I For­ Heart to Heart: of murals ever another surprise!"-proving that New Poems Inspired by in full color. with eyes and hearts wide open, we will Twentieth-Century American Art never fail to be delighted by the beauty The pages of this book are filled with Edited by Jan Greenberg of color and form. beautiful color themselves, illustrating ABRAMS 80 pages, Ages 10-14, $19.95 -Michelle Reale the bounty of nature to be enjoyed in California, whether ISBN 0109-4386-7 you are a permanent resident or a migrant worker expecting Iguanas in the Snow and Inspired as a child by the art she dis­ to return to Mexico at the end of the Other Winter Poems covered in the Great Hall at the St. harvest season. The ubiquitous iguana, By Francisco X. Alarcon Louis Art Museum, Jan Greenberg was triumphant and playful, is a reminder Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez similarly excited, as a young adult, to CHIWREN'S BOOK PR ESS discover the long-standing tradition of 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $15. 95 art-inspired poetry, such as Keats's ISBN 0-89239-168-5 "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and Homer's description of Achilles's shield. The Iguanas in the Snow is a splendid book, result of this discovery, long germinat­ the last in a series by this author and ing, is a book of beautiful and diverse illustrator celebrating the seasons. Win­ artwork accompanied by the poets' ter is the highlight here, and this book response to the work. will remind you gently and joyously Divided into four parts-Stories, that while snow and cold air on your Voices, Impressions, and Expressions cheeks may be the postcard version of - Heart to Heart offers readers access to a the season, a warm-weather winter holds range of perspectives and creative pro­ just as many delights and pleasures. jects. The first section includes poems Award-winning poet Francisco X. that evoke particular memories or tell a Alarcon and illustrator Maya Christina small story of their own in response to Gonzalez have synergistically created a something seen in a work of art. Dan spirited and colorful romp through win­ Masterson writes poignantly of his boy­ ter using Mexico and California as the hood days with his big brother on their backdrop. Family members and friends Illustration by Maya Christina Gonzalez, city street, in response to Edward Hop- enjoy winter in many different ways, from Iguanas in the Snow

54 Winter 2001-2002

Reviewers in This Issue ~

Christine Alfano lives in Minneapolis with her family. A former bookseller, she writes about children's books for the Ruminator Review and other publications.

Martha Davis Beck is the editor of Riverbank Review. Illustration by Kate Kiesler,.from Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems Kathryne Beebe is currently studying medieval history at Oxford University. of the poet's grandmother's home in the fun and adventure of camping. Mexico. A strong sense of connection Kristine O'Connell George, author John Caddy produces Self Expressing to one's heritage, as well as to nature, of the award-winning The Great Frog Earth (SEE), an Internet-based program pervades this volume and is articulated Race and Old Elm Speaks, trains her at Hamline University that teaches in the last poem, accompanied by an eye on both the obvious pleasures of ecological literary through making art. illustration of four children of different camping and those that are not so sizes and hues standing under snow­ obvious, such as seeing a gentle doe Lee Galda, coauthor ofLiterature and laden trees: for the first time, "close enough to the Child, is a professor ofchildren's touch," and the unexpected peace that literature at the University of Minnesota. Children are comes from just enjoying nature with the blooming nothing else to do: "I might sit here all Krystyna Poray Goddu is the author branches of trees of day I by myself, alone I quiet and still, A Celebration of Steiff: Timeless Toys one day their seeds I silent as stone." for Today (Porifolio Press) and coauthor will become Spending day and night outdoors, of The Doll by Contemporary Artists the roots campers are warmed by a crackling (Abbeville Press). campfire, find sleeping outside a rare of other trees pleasure, and even see small spiders as Nathalie op de Beeck writes about bearing their own the amazing creatures they are: children's books for Publishers Weekly blooming branches. and other publications. -Michelle Reale gray spiders spinning silver, looping silky lines Michelle Reale is the circulation manager through smoky wisps of a busy public library and a freelance book Toasting Marshmallows: critic. She lives in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Camping Poems The result is a desire to remain: By Kristine O'Connell George Jenny Sawyer, a former editorial intern We will have to stay Illustrated by Kate Kiesler at Riverbank Review, is currently at least one more day. CLARION a student at Bryn Mawr College. 4 8 pages, Ages 4-8, $15. 00 Toasting Marshmallows is a testament ISBN 0-618-04597-X Susan Marie Swanson is the author to the enduring pleasures of a great ofLetter to the Lake and Getting Used The experience ofcamping-the sights, American tradition. George's poems, to the Dark (both published by DK Ink). the smells, the physical tasks-are unique­ accompanied by Kate Kiesler's soft and She reads and writes poems with children ly satisfying, and sometimes challeng­ engaging illustrations, will tempt read­ in her work as a visiting poet in schools. ing to the uninitiated. Whether or not ers to dig out the camping gear and roll readers have had the experience of out the sleeping bags in anticipation of Renee Victor is a freelance writer pitching a tent, hiking rocky terrain, or their own possible adventures in the based in Minnesota. A former teacher, roasting marshmallows beneath a starry great outdoors. she writes about children's literature for sky, they will enjoy these poems about -Michelle Reale a variety ofpublications.

55 Riverbank Review

' one for the she\f

A hardworking man's livelihood is threat­ The Paper Crane crane, now taller than he is, even when he ened when a four-lane highway bypasses By Molly Bang joyfully stretches his arms to the ceiling. his small restaurant. Though the place 32 pages, Ages 4-10 When word of the dancing crane has a gas range and hot and cold running GREENWILLOW, 1985 spreads-by word of mouth, not on the water, Molly Bang tells her story as if it paperback: $5.95 hardctnJtr: $16.95 10 o'clock television news-the restau­ were a folktale. The man is called simply rant becomes a lively gathering place. The "the owner." His son, engaging­ magical crane brings together ly present everywhere in the children and adults of many dif­ book's detailed cut-paper illus­ ference races and cultures. Alone, trations, is never mentioned in with friends, or with family, the the spare text. The visitor who guests are enfolded by the earthy changes their lives is "the comforts of the restaurant. They stranger." As we turn the pages eat fresh muffins, soup, salads, of The Paper Crane, eager to see and desserts garnished with fruit. what happens, we feel the deep Through it all, the owner quiet and serenity at the heart and his son work from morning of this picture book. until night. Months later, when When the mysterious strang­ the stranger returns, plays a er enters the deserted restau­ melody on his fl ute, climbs rant, the owner graciously serves onto the crane's back, and flies him a meal even though he has away, it isn't a sad moment. The no money. The stranger shows real gift is not the bird, but the his gratitude by folding a paper good fortune to continue doing napkin into a traditional origa­ meaningful work. The renewal mi crane. "You have only to Illustration by Molly Bang, from The Paper Crane of the restaurant continues as clap your hands," he says, "and the story of the stranger and the this bird will come to life and dance for you. Take it, and magic crane is told over and over again. The supernatural enjoy it while it is with you." magic of the crane brings the real-life magic of food, fellow­ First published in 1985, The Paper Crane won the Boston ship, and storytelling. On the last page of the book, the boy Globe/ Hom Book Award and has since appeared in paper­ is shown practicing the flute, inspired by the example of the back and foreign language editions. What makes this picture gentle stranger. As he grows, he's bound to bring some book so satisfying? For one thing, Bang's illustrations are magic of his own into the world. exquisite. The three-dimensional quality of the paper Because a traditional Japanese paper fold is central to cutouts draws us in. The pictures are full of textures: tissue, the plot, this book has sometimes been treated as if it were thick brown paper, foil, colored and printed papers, pieces rooted specifically in Japanese culture. But the story's of fabric, snippets of yarn-enriched with deft bits of draw­ roots have a broad reach. In the Taoist tradition, pure ing and painting. As the weeks pass, different kinds of flow­ white cranes are sacred symbols of wisdom, and there are ers appear in the vases at the restaurant. ancient Chinese stories in which immortal sages ride on Sometimes Bang offers large tableaux that span two the backs of cranes. In many places the crane signifies pages, and for other scenes she creates staccato sequences of good fortune, prosperity, and long life. In The Paper Crane, small pictures. One such sequence depicts the little boy, kindness and hard work are celebrated, and ordinary lives barefoot and clad in pajamas, alone in the restaurant dining are full of mystery. room. He claps his hands and dances with the graceful -Susan Marie Swanson

56 }-1~111 Nc)nfictic)n 1-lighlights frc)lll Hought()ll Mifflin 13oc)kS f()r c:hildrcn

TR\\'ELl~G ~t \. Traveling Man: The Journey oflbn Battuta 1325-1354 \\'rittcn, illustrated and illuminated by James Rumford * "Its an awe-inspiring talc. C\'OC.-ati\dl' presented, and pcticct for armchair tt'il\'cicrs."- Ki1kus Rc1'icws, starred review s16.oo

Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist's Microscope by Stephen Kramer photographs b\' Dennis Kunkel SC IE:'\'TISTS I;'>; TIIE FIELD SERIES * "This title offers a wealth of scientific information along with an insightful look at the world of an individual scientist." -School Lilmuy .Journal, starred rc,·icw ISBN 0-618-05546-0 s16.oo

Black Potatoes: The Stozy ofthe Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti * "Bartoletti humanizes the big C\'Cnts by bringing the reader up close to the li\'cs of ordinary people." - Booklist, starred rc\'icw We Rode the ISBN 0-618-00271-5 s18.oo O han Trai.ns We Rocle the Orphan Trains .,. r,11 by Andrea Warren 'f , ... * "This is powe1ful nonfiction for classroom and personal reading N' and for discussion." - B

Breaking Through bv Francisco .Jimenez * "Jimenez writes with simplicity about a harsh world seldom seen in chi ldren's books." - Booklist, starred rc\icw ISBN 0-618-01173-0 $15.00

Houghton Mifflin Company · Boston www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

AUTHOR celebrating literature for the young and old READINGS The nation's largest and most comprehensive independent PUB LI CA Tl 0 NS literary organization features classes, readings and a new McKnight Artist Fellowship focusing on children's literature. FELLOWSHIPS COMING sooN : Festival of Children's Literature SUMMER March 16, 2002 : 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. YOUTH Featuring publishers. editors. educators and booksellers. authors and illustrators. PROGRAMS including Kate DiCamillo. Pete Houtman, Steve Johnson. Lou Fancher and others. LOFT

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