AN INTERVIEW WITH KARLA KUSKIN ~Riverbank Review ~~~~ ----:;::;-- - ~~ --~~ ----==== of l>ooks for Young -readers Ten Great Poetry Collections

A Profile of Meindert Dejong

The Teacher's Art

Hands, Lois Ehlert's Tribute to Her Parents

Tales of a Bookstore Psychic

PLUS ~ New Books for Winter

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contents

Essays ~ Working with My Hands ...... 7 By Lois Ehlert When Just Enough Is Plenty ...... 10 By Mary Lou Burket

I Was a Bookstore Psychic ...... 21 By Betsy Thomas Coming up: Reviews ~ In the New Books for Winter ...... 24 Riverbank Review's Spring issue

THE 1999 WRITERS ON Reflections and Reminiscences by THE RIVERBANK john Coy ...... 9 CHILDREN'S 20 Nancy Willard ...... BOOKS OF INTERVIEW Karla Kuskin ...... 12 DISTINCTION By Leonard S. Marcus AWARDS THE TEACHER'S ART Series Friction ...... 15 By john G. Ram say honoring outstanding

PROFILE Meindert Dejong ...... 18 new picture books, By Christine Hepp ermann fiction, nonfiction, BOOKMARK Ten Great Poetry Collections ...... 23 and poetry for A POEM FOR WINTER "christmas lights" ...... 3 9 young readers. By Valerie Worth

ONE FOR The River Bank and Other Stories from The THE SHELF Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame Adapted and illustrated by Inga Moore . . . . 40

About the cover artist: JEANETTE WINTER is the author and illustrator of many pic­ Acknowledgments: Publication of the ture books, including FoUow the Dn"nking Gourd, Josefina, and most recently, My Name Is Riverbank Review is made possible by a Georgia, a picture book biography of Georgia O'Keeffe (Harcourt Brace, 1998). She has gift from Margaret S. Hubbs. The mag­ also illustrated many books by other writers, including Tony Johnston's Day of the Dead, azine gratefully acknowledges this sup­ Roni Schotter's A Fruit and Vegetable Man, Steve Sanfield's SnNew York City and the hills ofTexas. individual donors. Riverbank Review

editors note

November is my favorite month. Sharing quiet. In fact, this may be what I am really this sentiment in a group, it is rare to hear it looking for when I go outside in November. echoed. I can read the question in people's eyes: I think of November as a month for poetry. Why not October, with its brilliant leaves? Why I am a person with a head full of poems, but not January, when at least there's the sparkle of much of the time there is too much noise inside snow? November sits stark and aloof between fall and outside my head for me to listen to them. and winter. It is marked by the fading of color, Karla Kuskin, interviewed by Leonard S. Marcus the heightening of wind, and the setting in of in this issue, suggests that media culture, which chill. What is there to choose in this lonely delivers so many things in abbreviated, "sound month of transition? bite" form, may actually make children receptive I like to take walks in November. Here in to poetry. This idea gave my heart a little leap­ Minneapolis, our famous lakes are ringed by it seemed like a surprising twist on, or an unex­ joggers, rollerskaters, and cyclists from the pected blessing of, something I am used to feel­ time the snow melts until-about Halloween. ing pretty grim about. In November, you have the path to yourself. If children today are receptive to poetry, we Or, more accurately, you share it with a hand­ still need to make space for it-in our lives and ful of others who seem out, in part, to claim a in theirs. This is difficult if our lives are saturat­ bit of solitude. ed with stimuli or filled with objects and pursuits In November everything seems stripped that do not have meaning for us. In an essay down to its essentials. The trees are wet and entitled "When Just Enough Is Plenty," Mary black, their bare shapes certain and striking Lou Burket talks about simplicity as a value that against the soft gray of the sky. The colors of is expressed in a number of picture books for November are muted, which makes what bright­ children. In Demi's The Greatest Treasure, Li, a ness there is stand out all the more. When the man who loves music, is almost deprived of his sidewalk is empty, small things-such as the happiness by the distraction of sudden riches. sound of a single dry leaf scraping by in the Fortunately, Li is wise enough to recognize his wind-fill the air. loss and to restore his life to balance. In many of I am not a minimalist by temperament. I our lives, simple pleasures can get eaten up with­ live in a cluttered house surrounded by things out our realizing it. It is something to guard that I love. When I travel I always take too against, whether by taking the time to sit down much stuff along. I love colors, sounds, smells, with a book of poetry (see this issue's Bookmark tastes, in profusion. But in my life, which has for a list of ten suggestions) or venturing out for its share of all these delights, there is a lack of a walk on a cold, quiet day. one other important pleasure. That pleasure is -Martha Davis Beck

2

Riverbank Review

Editor Martha Davis Beck Art Director Kristi Anderson Marketing Director Christine Alfano Prinuess September and Circulation Manager Christine Heppermann the Nightingale Editorial Committee W. Somerset Maugham Christine Alfano Illustrated by Richard C. Jones Martha Davis Beck Mary Lou Burket Long out of print, this elegant fairy tale ha s JUSt been Christine Heppermann reissued in a state-of-the-art edition featuring the original text and illustrations. Set in Siam (now Susan Marie Swanson Thailand), the humorous story of the beautiful Princess House Artist September, her good-charm nightingale, her father Julie Delton who gives away presents on his own birthday, and her eight envious siste rs teaches memorable lessons in Proofreader kindness and putting the happiness of David Caligiuri the one we love before our own. 48 pp., 24 color illus., Computer Consultant jacketed hardback, ages 8+ Booklist praised the original edition as Eric Hinsdale "one of the most decorative picture 0-19-512480-4, $16.95 books of the season," while The New Cattails Yorker didn't hesitate to nominate it Andy Nelson as "the most notable" of the season. Advisory Board Rudine Sims Bishop, Susan Bloom, Barbara Elleman, Carol Erdahl, Dubber Goes to Heaven Karen Nelson Hoyle, Susan Huber, Arna Bontemps Ginny Moore Kruse, Margaret O'Neill Illustrated by Daniel Minter Ligon, Trudi Taylor, Mary Wagner Cover Art Written by a prominent member of the Jeanette Winter Harlem Renaissance and never before published, this unusually personal tale Winter 1998/ 99 recounts the heavenly adventures of ten-year Volume I, Number 3 old Bubber. With gentle lyricism and humor, Copyright © 1998 by the Riverbank Review. Bontemps immerses us deep into Southern black life with All rights reserved. all its vitality, close-knit families, strong ties to the land, and Please direct correspondence to: deeply ingrained religious beliefs. Stunningly illustrated by RIVERBANK REVlEW artist Daniel Minter, Bubber Goes to Heaven is a sensitive, 80 pp.; illus., jacketed University of St. Thomas hardcover, ages 6+ resonant tale in the great tradition of oral storytelling. 2115 Summit Avenue, CHC-131 0-19-512365-4, $17.95 St. Paul, MN 55105 Phone: (651) 962-5372 Fax: (651) 962-5169 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.stthomas.edu/ www/ rbr_http

The Riverbank Review (ISSN 1099-6389) is pub­ lished quarterly, in March, June, September, and December. Subscriptions are $20 for one year (four issues), $35 for two years. The Riverbank Review is published in affiliation with the School of Education at the University of St. Available at your local bookstore or ca ll 1-800-451 -7556. Visit us at : www.oup-usa.org Thomas. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS• 198Mad1sonAvenue • NewYork,NY 10016 "This work makes readers feel that Lowry is an old friend."::: LOOKING BACK A Book of Memories by Lois Lowcy * "Lowry deftly dances between humorous and heart­ breaking with this ingenious memoir.... A compelling and inspirational portrait of the author emerges from these vivid snapshots of life's joy­ ful, sad and surprising moments." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The author's voice comes through strongly as she shares both her happiest and saddest times .... Much more intimate and personal than many tradi­ tional memoirs." -Sclwol Library Journal*

illustrated with photographs All ages ISBN 0-395-89543-X $16.00

- - :\ \\'altPr 6 Lorrai1w Book • Houghton l\lift1i11 • Boston, l\lassadrnsPtts *"Gripping'' -Publishers Week!Y (starred review) *"G Iorio us" -AlA Booklist (starred review) *"Magnificent'' -School Library Journal (starred review) *"Exemplary" - The Hom Book (starred review) Ages 8 up. 40 pp. TR $16.00/0- 688 - 14329 -6; LE $15.93/0-688- 14'.HO- X More picn1re book biographies by Diane Stanley: Shaka, King of the Zulus · Bard ofAvon : The Sr.01y of William Shakespeare Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations · Cleopatra · Leonardo da Vinci

Morrow Junior Books A division of William Morrow & Co., Inc.· 1350 Avenue of c:he Americas, New York, NY IOOl'l · www.williammorrow.com Winter 1998/1999

Working with My Hands

How the artist adapted ordinary objects to make an extraordinary book. By Lois Ehlert

never met a real artist when I was growing up, yet I always Zoo. I try many techniques before I settle on what I consider to be the best knew that was what I wanted to be. I watched my mom and solution for the project at hand. If I I dad make things with their hands. My dad loved to build do my work properly, the results will things out of wood; my mother created with fabric. I wanted to look simple and feel just right. Ideas for my books come from make things too, so my dad set up an old folding table in a comer many sources, including my own life where I could work on my projects. always keep my eyes open for unusual experiences. In 1985, after my father That one corner in our small house was objects to incorporate into my projects. died, I created a handmade book as a my "spot," a place for me to create. I I have boxes and drawers full of inter­ memorial to him. This book, which I was allowed to leave my supplies esting things I call "good stuff," just called Hands, talked about the differ­ spread out there to return to when I waiting to be part of an illustration. ent things my father did with his had free time. It was a messy table. After I get an idea for a book, I hands. That was a strong bond Colorful cloth scraps, buttons, ribbons, begin with the visual elements; then I between us-we both worked with our thread, leftover wood, twisted wire, bits write a text that goes hand in hand hands. For this book I experimented of leather, shiny nails and screws­ with the art. I enjoy experimenting, let­ with the idea of telling a story about these were my first art supplies. ting the art and the words blend someone close to me, using objects The idea of having a place of together to form my message. I'm care­ associated with that person. one's own to work is a concept I like ful with the illustrations, realizing that I found a pair of my dad's leather to share with children. If you are going they may be one of the earliest experi­ work gloves, and they became the to create, you need a place in which to ences a child has of looking at art. book's cover. I bound the book with do it. It's that simple. You won't do I know that the first nuts and bolts, adding a much if you always have to run art I viewed as a child piece of a ruler that I around looking for a pencil or a piece was in a book. Our fami­ found in his workshop. of paper. Those creative ideas will fly ly went to the library reg­ When I finished making out of your head. Each day when I ularly. My brother and the book, I placed it into wake up, I look forward to going to sister and I could each an old cigar box. (Dad my "spot." Of course it's a bigger check out five books per always smoked cigars space now, with more art supplies, but week, which meant we when he worked.) I lined it still serves the same function as the could each read fifteen. I the box with his blue little folding table of my childhood. always thumbed through work handkerchief. When I'm there, I'm ready to create. the books first, looking Some time later I Lois Ehlert As I think about it, not much has at the art. Of course, the showed this project to changed since I was a child. I'm still illustrations weren't full color then; my editor, and she encouraged me to cutting and pasting. I work in collage, most were line drawings with single consider making it into a children's the technique of cutting paper, fabric, colors added. Today, as an artist, I book. At first I couldn't figure out or other materials and gluing it all to a have many more choices. I can paint how to do it. But the idea stuck with backing. I use handmade papers with subtle watercolors of fruits and vegeta­ me. My mother's work had influenced interesting textures, sometimes paint­ bles as I did in Eating the Alphabet, or me too, and I began to think about ing them with my own designs, and I use flat, bold colors like those in Color how I might incorporate her presence

7 Riverbank Review

objects, painted areas, color xeroxes, and photographs. I constructed the birdhouse of wood veneer, following the proportions of a birdhouse my dad made years ago. (I still have the real one in my studio.) The paint­ splotched apron detail the reader sees is actually my apron, though my dad also wore one when he worked. The section about my mother begins with colorful quilt squares. For this image, I photographed a section of a vest I had made of silk scraps. The doily was made by my grandmother; the scissors were a gift from my mom to me. I made the pot holder as a present for into the book. I also wanted to write I bought some fuzzy yellow my mom when I was about eight years about the importance of having a gloves at the hardware store, which old, and she saved it all these years. work spot like the table I had when I would be photographed and die-cut to Each page of Hands overlays the was young. become the book's cover. (Later, I following one, each fitting inside the A decade went by. I thought ripped apart a similar pair and created shape of the glove. At each tum of the about Hands from time to time, and the pattern for the green gloves associ­ page a surprise is revealed. All of the eventually I began writing notes and ated with my mother, which appear overlays were carefully worked out so gathering objects together. Making the later in the book.) I began the text that the type would fit perfectly with transition from the original handmade exactly as I had in the original home- the art. Die-cuts needed to be simple. book, which was one of a kind, to a book that would be printed in multi­ ple copies and would speak to a broad audience was daunting to me. Part of the beauty of the original book was being able to touch the different tex­ tures and see the contrasts of the many real objects. I began the new version of Hands by thinking of ways that readers, using their hands, could interact with the book as they read the story and viewed the art. For the first object inside the book, I found a small tin cigar box that had belonged to my dad and still con­ tained some of his screwdrivers. I added some of my own screwdrivers and took a photo of it. I designed a made book: "My father always works I made a pattern for each shaped page. die-cut, or shaped page, resembling the with his hands." This text was printed A metal form called a die (similar to a cigar box, with a cover that could be on the same blue work handkerchief I very sharp cookie cutter) would later lifted up to reveal the screwdrivers had lined the cigar box with. This be made for each of these pages. After inside. The inside of the box's cover time I duplicated the pattern on a the book was printed, the die-cutting offered a perfect space for the book's color xerox machine. machine would cut through the paper, title page. Having created this first ele­ Each illustration in the book was defining the outer shape of each page. ment of the book, I was on my way. constructed by hand, combining real Paper was selected for durability. I

8 Winter 1998/1999 made three or four dummy books to orchestrate the action and to perfect the mechanics of the book. Through­ out the process, I talked with the edi­ tor about the continuity of thought, with the art director about the physi­ cal construction of the book, and John Coy with the production manager about the challenges of photographing the As I walk along the banks of the Mississippi River, I 1magme the collage art. A personal project had waterfall that was here ten thousand years ago. become intensely collaborative. Many of the objects illustrated in Water from melting glaciers roared over the mile-wide face of Hands are things I built to match the the falls. The constant pounding wore away sandstone, leaving lime­ size and shape of the book, such as stone ledges jutting above the river. These ledges cracked and crashed the wooden box for the "good stuff." Each treasure was glued, sewn, or below, and a new stone face of the falls emerged. In a marsh nearby, wired inside the box so that the box men threw spears into the belly of a woolly mammoth. They cele­ could be sent out to be photographed brated the kill because the flesh was food, the hide was clothing, and without the objects moving around inside it. I asked a young friend to the tusks were tools. At a site near here, archaeologists recently trace his hand for me, which was a uncovered a three-inch spear point resting on a bed of limestone. guide for the die-cut of the child's hand. The colored handprint is actu­ Scientists estimate it was made ten thousand years ago. ally mine, but it is reduced in size to For the last five years I have lived near the river, and each visit fit inside the small hand. The water­ I see and hear something new. Today a cardinal calls, and my eyes fol­ color paintbox I found in an antique shop, added some of my own paint low her flight between branches. The mile-wide valley and sandstone containers, some good brushes, and bluffs carved by the river are clearly visible on this bright morning. some ratty brushes from a beginners' At the water's edge a blue heron rises and slowly circles back to his set. The wood veneer background on that page was inspired by the table I nest. I bend down to watch a translucent green dragonfly hover above had as a child. a flower. When it lands, I'm astonished at the thinness of its net­ I once asked my mother whether veined wings. For thousands of years, people and dragonflies have she and Dad ever thought that I might become an artist. She said they been here by the river. I pause and wonder what it will be like one didn't know, but they could see that I thousand years from now. Below, I hear the water lapping, splashing, was interested. I can't help but think downriver. that they must have had some anx­ dancing ious moments wondering how I would make out in this life, once I john Ory is author of Night Driving, illustrated by Peter McCarty (Henry Holt, 1996). chose art as my vocation. But there His next picture book, Strong to the Hoop, will be published by Lee and Low in the fall. and is working on a story about the waterfall. was never a word to me other than He lives by the river in Minneapolis encouragement. Hands is written for the creative child. It also is a tribute to my parents and to every person who takes time to help a child. -=-

Lois Ehlert is the author of many award­ winning picture books. She lives between the Milwaukie River and Lake Michigan.

9 Riverbank Review

When Just Enough Is Plenty

Essay by Mary Lou Burket

he dominant theme of modern life, that there is always gle thing, living or crafted, has identity more to have and that one should always be trying to find and worth. Perhaps it shouldn't surprise us T a way to have it, is seldom a theme in children's books . that the natural world plays a role in On the contrary, stories of families with little to spare but much books that celebrate sufficiency and love. In Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely to share, stories of having enough of what is really needed, are Present (Harper & Row, 1962), a dia­ among the most honored and satisfy­ that it represents the family itself, its logue takes place between a child and ing picture books I know. In A Chair bond and joy. a rabbit who talks, walks, and crosses for My Mother, by Vera B. Williams In Ox-Cart Man (Viking, 1979), his arms behind his head in a casual, (Greenwillow, 1982), everything a the comforting pattern of daily life manly way. Like any good friend, the family owns is ruined in a fire. This extends throughout the year in a cycle rabbit casts about for answers to the alone would make a child, her mother, of seasons. Donald Hall's hymn to child's ageless question, What to give and her grandma sympathetic, but family farming long ago begins this my mother for her birthday? Williams builds her way: In fall, the Charlotte Zolotow's fabulous story on something farmer "backed his ox story has an underlying realism. more important-the into his cart and he Something that the mother likes is child's involvement in and his family filled it deemed "a good present," but some of the family's goal of up with everything the things she likes are too mundane­ filling a jar with they made or grew all red underwear, for instance-and oth­ change, to buy a chair. year long that was left ers are much too grand. "Yes, a chair," the over." Everything "left Every suggestion is taken from child explains. "A over" is taken to mar­ the landscape, a dreamlike place of wonderful, beautiful, ket and promptly trees and paths and open spaces where fat, soft armchair. We sold-not only the the artist, Maurice Sendak, lets the will get one covered candles and shingles characters roam in friendly contem­ in velvet with roses all Illustration by Aki Sogabe, and apples, but the plation. Fruit naturally grows in such a over it. We are going from The Loyal Cat, cart itself, the ox, and place- it makes "a lovely present." to get the best chair in by lensey Namioka the ox's yoke. Another friendly yet mysterious the whole world." By starting his helper appears in Barbara Diamond Children who are paid for odd narrative in the fall, and then surpris­ Goldin's just Enough Is Plenty (Viking, jobs and adults who earn their living ing us with just how much the farmer 1988), an original Hanukkah story set working for tips, as this little daughter says good-bye to, Hall is able to depict in Poland. Here a family that is "poor, and her mother do, have something in the work of farming as one of elegant but not so poor" prepares for the hol­ common: they see the link between replacement: nothing is wasted, and iday, Papa's extra earnings going their effort and their pay. This story nothing more is wanted. Barbara directly to pay for food. His grum­ illustrates another link, the one Cooney's tidy illustrations, in which blings frighten his daughter Malka. between their earnings and a purchase even fallen leaves have individual Will there be enough to eat? Will so dear to every member of the family shape and place, suggest that every sin- there be any kopeks left for her and

10 Winter 1998/1999 her brother to use when they play the Gradually, the priest's simple life and mind and to choose the path of dreidel game? becomes so tenuous that mice desert contentment over the path oflonging. After Malka buys the eggs for the temple, leaving nothing for the Demi's retelling of a traditional tale potato latkes, after Mama drops a coin priest's cat to eat. And so it is that the from China, The Greatest Treasure in the box for charity, after all the cat, who, "being a cat," has kept secret (Scholastic, 1998), is another Asian latkes have been served, a stranger his power to make objects rise and story that glows with confidence, knocks on the door of the house. float, decides to help. To aid his rather than doubt, about this choice. Without a word, everyone gives up a friend, he goes to the local castle, It's the story of a rich man and a single latke so the stranger may eat too. armed with his magic and a plan. poor one, fathers both. The rich There is enough, but "just enough." Writer Lensey Namioka deftly man, disgusted by the sound of After the meal, the stranger plays portrays the lord and lady, visiting music and laughter that he hears next dreidel with the children, gives them priests, and castle warriors as being all door ("This merriment must stop!"), kopeks, and tells stories gives the poor man a that fill the house. The gift of coins; a neigh­ pictures, thickly painted bor who is rich, he rea­ in a flat, naive style by sons, will not have Seymour Chwast, sug­ time to be noisy. gest the joy to be Indeed, the counting had in the depths of a and the hiding and the dark winter. In a nice bit spending of the money of timing, they reveal­ distracts the poor man ahead of the text-the from his greatest satisfac­ stranger's early-dawn de­ tion: playing the flute, to parture, showing him slip­ the delight of his wife and ping away while the fam­ daughters. Days must ily is still asleep. He pass before he under­ leaves behind a bag of stands the paradox of silks to help the strug­ having his happiness gling tailor, but from his stolen by a treasure. stories the children al­ Gladly, he returns the ready suspect that they coins, and adds a gift of have met a prophet, the Illustration by Maurice Sendak,from Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present his own: a packet of generous Elijah. flutes for the rich man Children accustomed to broad that Tetsuzan is not. Comedy mounts and his wife and sons. styles of comic illustration may not rec­ as the cat must go to greater and Demi's pictures are, as always, ognize how humorous The Loyal Cat greater lengths to draw their attention exquisitely drawn, yet charged with pat­ (Harcourt Brace, 199 5), with beautiful to the priest and give this gentle man tern, color, and action. Each illustration cut-paper illustrations by Aki Sogabe, a chance to win the favor of the lord. is in the circular shape of a coin. really is. It's the story of a humble priest In the end, if the cat's favor does not Although I'm unconvinced that two who "knew thousands of prayers by bring quite the reward he had wanted, such different men could share a friend­ heart" but kept a modest temple, visited there is humor in that, too--and wis­ ship ("the greatest treasure of all") as by no one of importance. "No fine dom, for the cat understands that his these men ultimately do, this is less the paintings hung on the walls of his tem­ friend "would not have been happy as point of the story than its blissful view ple; no flowers decorated the altar. The the priest of a big, famous temple." of family life, conveyed through words food he ate was plain, and the clothes He prefers a quiet life. and pictures. The ponytails swinging he wore were made of cotton. Tetsuzan Conflicts of sufficiency and want, above the daughters' heads have a joy didn't need much money because he sharing and greed, bedevil human and music of their own. -=- enjoyed simple things. He liked to water beings everywhere, but Eastern cul­ the moss in the garden and sweep the tures seem more willing than Western Mary Lou Burket lives and writes in an old pine needles from the steps." ones to grapple with these states of life stone school in Minneapolis.

11 Riverbank Review

Karla Kuskin

The poet recalls a childhood filled with langu.age and shares her method ofteaching poetry to children. By Leonard S. Marcus

erbal and visual expression are closely A gentleman went out for an airing joined in the wry and keenly observed art He forgot his hat Oh Oh dear dear Vof Karla Kuskin. Kuskin, whose first chil­ What shall we do about that? dren's book, Roar and More (Harper & Brothers, My parents read poetry aloud to each other as well as 1956), had its origins at a graduate school project to me. My teachers at The Little Red School House, in in the Yale University School of Art, is the author (and Greenwich Village, also were good readers. As a child, I often the illustrator) of a memorable shelfful of picture would be paid a nickel-and later a quarter-for supplying books and poetry collections, including The Rose on My the headlines for certain ads for my father's clients. That Cake (Harper, 1964), Near the Window Tree: Poems and experience taught me to write short, to pare things down to Notes (Harper, 1975), The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, illus­ the bare essence. When I was seven my parents gave me a trated by Marc Simont (Harper, 1982), and The Sky Is copy of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which I loved Always in the Sky (Harper, 1998). Among her many hon­ and can still recite at length. So my childhood was filled ors is the 1979 NCTE award for excellence in poetry for with words and rhythmic language and a love of poetry. children and the 1998 first annual Charlotte Zolotow lec­ Did you memorize much poetry as a child? tureship at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Our The Little Red School House was a "progressive" school, conversation, recorded on September 14, 1998, took which meant in part that our teachers were philosophically place around the kitchen table in Karla Kuskin's opposed to rote learning. We were, however, encouraged to Brooklyn, New York, home. read poems we liked to the class. I think one reason that some schoolchildren don't develop an affinity for poetry is that LSM: What makes poetry for children different from other poetry? their teachers' first experiences of poetry involved rote mem­ KK: It is simpler, friendlier to children. It is written to orization and analysis, instead of sheer enjoyment: accustom children to poetry as a form and to encourage "Memorize this, dissect that." That negative attitude contin­ them to love poetry. Children love to read and to hear ues to be passed on to the next generation. rhyme-although they're not good at writing rhyme. Your school was loosely affiliated with the nearby Bank Street They're wonderful with imagery and they respond to School where Lury Sprague Mitchell introduced the experientially rhythm. All these considerations enter into my work when based "here and now" approach to writingfor young children, and I'm writing poetry for them. guided the early writing careers of Margaret Wise Brown and What were some ofyour own first experiences ofpoetry? Ruth Krauss, among others. Did the "here and now" idea leave a My father, who was in advertising and wrote copy, was lasting impression on you, or influence your work as a poet? a versifier. He would make up poems for birthdays, Certainly the way I was taught as a young child left a last­ Valentine's Day, and other special occasions. I would sit at ing impression. We did concentrate first on learning about our the piano as my father played Rodgers & Hart and sing the surroundings, and then branched out into the wider world. lyrics, even though I couldn't carry a tune. I still can't. Once we were writing, we wrote journals, plays, etc., that relat­ By seven, I had been making up verses of my own for ed to the subject at hand. What mattered most perhaps was years. I dictated to my mother. She wrote them down and that our teachers made us feel that what we as children had to I felt encouraged. Here's one of my earliest works: say had value. That was a wonderful thing to realize.

12 Winter 1998/1999

That emphasis on the everyday also underlies a room, and every night when I got into bed there would be method I worked out for introducing poetry to school­ a fox under my bed. And the fox had a dumbwaiter, and children. For many years I made annual visits to two on this dumbwaiter were beautifully colored bottles-all schools in Texas, where I saw the eight-, nine-, and ten­ filled with liquids, all of them poisonous. So I knew I had year-old children each day for a week. I would begin by to lie in the exact middle of the bed, with my hands at my saying, "Write me a description of some familiar object. It sides, or I would somehow be poisoned, and I would die." can be very short, but don't just say that the thing you're After telling this story, I asked if any of the children had writing about is pretty: I want to be similiar memories of night frights. All ~--,-.;;.~""°'-. _,,, A a bl e to see wh at you see an d to kn ow ,,..~ .. but a very few of the children had why you chose to write about it." '\ such memories. I asked those who When the children read their pieces ~ I liked growing. could not remember a scary image to to each other, it would always turn That was nice. make something up. That's how I out that their descriptions touched on The leaves were soft. introduced imagination to the group. their feelings about their subjects-a The sun was hot. I never ask children to write a I was warm and red and round favorite teddy bear, for instance. So poem. I think that's a big mistake. At then someone dropped me the second assignment would be to no point have I asked children to in a pot. write a description in which they Being a strawberry isn't rhyme or to follow a particular form, explored their feelings about their all pleasing. though it often turns out that their subject more deliberately. With each This morning they put me descriptions can, with the addition of assignment, I added another of the m ICe cream. a few line breaks, be made to look like elements that go into the making of a I'm freezing. poems. And if it looks like a poem, simple poem. and sounds like a poem, it's a poem. After feeling came memory. I - From The Sky Is Always W7ry not encourage rhyming? Why told the children this story: "When I in the Sky not ask directly for poems? was little, I lived in an apartment on Children have a fresh eye; it's that the top floor of a house. I had a little quality that we treasure in them and

13 Riverbank Review

tle explosions-the kind of tening can be very compelling. zetz that's also achieved by a You make the expen.ence of listening strong punch line. Too tight a to or reading a poem sound a lot like lis­ rhyme scheme can be boring, tening to the radio. however. I think it is. Poems are more like Days that the wind takes over Writing for me is a radio than television. They are more Blowing through the gardens process of getting it right, of like drawings than paintings. They are Blowing birds out of the street trees writing a sentence, reversing word pictures akin to illustrations: the Blowing cats around corners the order of the clauses or translation into words of an image or Blowing my hair out phrases, taking out the words perhaps of a very little fantasy. Blowing my heart apart that don't contribute, getting Are poems more like drawings than Blowing high in my head it down to the bare bones of paintings because so much is left out? Like the sea sound caught in a shell. the thought and picture I Not quite; it's because what is left One child put her thin arms around the wind want to convey. It's not out is so important. -= And they went off together. about trying to sound fancy. Later the wind came back How has poetry for children Alone. Leonard S. Marcus 's most recent books include fared late{y? Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula - From Near the Window Tree When Ursula Nordstrom Nordstrom (HarperCollins, 1998) and A published my first book of Caldecott Celebration (Walker, 1998). poems, In the Middle of the Trees, in 1958, there weren't many other people writing r-"...... ~...., ..... -- - 4!7 that we as writers hope to keep alive in poetry collections for children. Now "I:\.. \ ourselves. Children really pay atten­ it's a field. Television and the movies ~ Winter Clothes tion, and they don't edit their experi­ fragment thought, particularly narra­ ences to the extent that we all learn to tive thought, and the kind of chil­ Under my hood I have a hat do as we grow older. However, they do dren's poetry we've been talking And under that not have a broad enough range oflan­ about fits in very nicely with contem­ My hair is flat. guage to rhyme creatively. As a result, porary media. Poetry as sound bites. Under my coat they use other peoples' rhymes, and What hasn't fared well, however, is My sweater's blue. this leads to stale, predictable writing. children's books. Poetry in particular My sweater's red. You want to create a situation in needs to stay in print in order to be I'm wearing two . which the child is really struggling reread, savored, and passed on by My muffler muffles to my chin with words. For that reason, I would word of mouth. But most poetry does­ And round my neck never hand children a form, saying, n't sell in major ways and only major And then tucks in. My gloves were knitted for instance, "We need three adjec­ sellers are staying in print. By my aunts. tives, dear. Start with 'A rose is a ... ' You 've j ust suggested a surprising I've mittens too and fill in the blanks." When you take way in which poetry for children may be And pants that approach, you're making it too attuned to media culture. Can poetry also And pants simple. You may get something that's provide children with relieffr om thefrenz y And boots nice to take home to mommy, but and sheer noise the media generate? And shoes you won't bring out what's inside the A poem reins you in to its With socks inside. child's own imagination. But when a rhythms. It slows you down and The boots are rubber, red and wide. child just blurts out as simply as pos­ makes you listen to words. I remem­ And when I walk sible what he or she has to say on a ber a grammar school teacher saying, I must not fall certain subject, the blurt often comes "Now put your heads down on your Because I can't get up at all. out sounding like poetry to us. desks. I'm going to read to you." - From The Sky Is Always What role does rhyme play in your Then she would say, "Close your in the Sky poems? eyes. Relax. Just think of the pictures It gives a poem a scattering of lit- these words make." That kind of !is-

14 Winter 1998/1999 the te3cher's art

Series Friction An experienced teacher tries to make the district's new reading series work for her students. By John G. Ramsay

'9 '9 I think I've been rendered speechless. I don't have a clue whole language" teacher. She smiles at what I'm going to do." Joanne Toft is sitting on a bench the irony in the oxymoron. As a native Iowan, she is proud of her state's repu­ behind Whittier School in Minneapolis. She has just fin­ tation for disciplined, no-nonsense ished the training that accompanies adoption of the district's new hard work. But as a lover of children's literature, she has been drawn to whole reading series, Houghton Mifflin's Invitations to Literary. It is language activities and strategies. This August 28, five days before the open­ selections of new and classic children's means picking and choosing the best ing of the new school year. books. And she's deeply into the habit children's literature she can find, as the Confusion is not a normal mode of identifying stories about current basis for learning. It means devising for Joanne, a third-, fourth-, and fifth­ events that she can tie in with field activities that extend outward into the grade teacher at Marcy Open School, trips to Twin Cities cultural, scientific, school's surrounding community, con­ a public school in Minneapolis. She is and artistic institutions. She's torn. necting reading to living. It also means rarely at a loss for words-in fact, she Invitations to Literacy is a slick and building curricula inward to the emerg­ seems to be in continual conversation tempting package. But Joanne doesn't ing language arts skills of her students: with herself and her closest colleagues do slick, doesn't trust packaging. spelling, vocabulary, and writing-lots about who she is as a teacher. And "To be a good teacher I really of writing. These are the cornerstones who she is not. need to know the materials. This cur­ ofJoanne's approach. It is a rich, care­ Right now she's discussing the riculum's themes don't come out of fully considered approach that allows cornucopia of support materials that my kids' lives. They're not the themes Joanne to inhale the many language accompany the new reading series: of our school community, or themes needs of her classroom and to breathe audio tapes, CD-ROMs, a website, that are in the news right now. Are my literate life into her students. She color-coded teacher's guides, letters to third graders going to connect with wants her children reading and writing parents in multiple languages. "It's the opening theme, 'Oink, Oink, and illustrating books, not ingesting a really well-put-together," she admits. Oink'? My kids from the city? What I textbook company's compilation of "It could make life easier. It does a lot bring and give to the kids is not there. book excerpts. of the running around. But-I'm not I need room for my creativity. If it's The low moment of the training sure I want life easier ... " not there, I lose my identity as a comes when the consultant demon­ Joanne is not sure she wants to teacher." In school districts buffeted strates a "Think Aloud." She holds up give up trolling through children's by political conflict, leadership a teacher's guide, open-faced toward bookstores in search of the right chap­ changes, and hairpin turns in curricu­ the audience of teachers, and offers ter books for her students. She's lar philosophy, a secure professional the tip of reading the "Think become masterful at managing her identity can be the most elusive of Aloud"-verbatim-from a Post-it budget to allow for regular purchases prizes. Yet it is a necessary tool for the note stuck to the back of the book. of literature for her book room, its success of one's students. That way a teacher could trick her kids shelves filled with carefully chosen Joanne calls herself an "Iowa into believing that she was just, well,

15 Riverbank Review

thinking aloud. As though standing in Joanne knows all this. In April, ings can also become a point of pride, front of a class of children, the con­ she and Carol Johnson exchanged a badge of honor, a self-serving pos­ sultant reads in a slight singsong: "I views. They found some common ture, and they carry an emotional know some obvious things about ground, and agreed to disagree weight that can erode one's morale. pigs-that they're big and they like about the adoption and its implica­ It's tricky. When do high-minded mud-but I still have a lot of ques­ tions. Joanne is troubled by the dis­ scruples protect the best interests of tions." trict's problems but is not convinced kids and their learning? And at what "Think Alouds" are presumably that she and other successful teach­ point do they become a convenient written for teachers who, on their ers at high-performing schools rationale for resisting change? Can own, wouldn't know what to say should bear the burden of the series either of these questions be answered when introducing "Oink, Oink, solution. "I understand the mobility with the comfort of certainty? Oink." Joanne is incensed. "I thought As the school year gets underway, it was kind of a put-down. If we can't Joanne is working through this com­ figure out how to do our own 'Think It was wonderful to plicated curricular, emotional, and, Aloud,' where are we?" Not all of the yes, ethical terrain. She's using teachers at the training session feel have the kids tear the Invitations to Literacy selectively, pru­ that their identity is being compro­ dently, in ways that click for her kids. mised by the district's adoption of the paragraph apart, and She's not following the advice of the series. Many would be hesitant to consultant, or the teacher's guide. challenge it, even if they had serious then do the rewrites ... And she hasn't abandoned her core misgivings. One teacher remarks in literacy activities. passing: "I do what the district asks I love what happened By September 29, she is in a new me to do. I think you have to look at place, a different state of mind, a con­ who signs your paycheck." when they asked fident position. But this has not come The last thing the Minneapolis easily. "I had a week of intense frus­ district wants to do is alienate its 'What's good writing tration. I walked out of here at noon highly skilled and veteran teachers. one day, and I thought I would cry. As Superintendent Carol Johnson and what isn't?' We The timing was too much-I couldn't explained to Joanne last April, this had never keep it all straight. But I did it again series adoption is aimed at three diffi­ moved the next day, and it worked. I was elat­ cult, interrelated problems: high stu­ to that level before. ed. The whole week was up and dent mobility, a scantily trained cadre down." She's flapping her hands, as of younger teachers, and no account­ though dribbling two basketballs. ability for how well or poorly reading question; but if a kid comes in dur­ She is surprised at what she's is taught. Carol Johnson's position is ing the year, wouldn't I be better off learning about her own skills and not that Houghton Mifflin has cap­ with creative choices?" resourcefulness. "It has been a really tured the magic keys to literacy, but Minneapolis's literacy problems interesting experience. Playing with that the series provides a pragmatic are hardly unique. They are the prob­ this series has helped me to discover answer to some of the district's most lems of city school districts across the some skills I didn't know I had. I had pressing problems. When kids transfer, nation. And for many of the same rea­ been telling myself: 'You can't do it helps if the same reader is used at sons, other urban districts-from this. You can't integrate all this mate­ their new school. When teachers arrive Jersey City to Tacoma-are adopting rial.' But then I found that it was easy at an in-service (staff training session), Invitations to Literacy. Since 1996 it has for me to problem-solve, once I it helps if they are working on the same been the number-one-selling reading jumped in." stories, poetry, vocabulary, and writing series in the country. She has her students problem­ assignments. When the majority of Professional misgivings cut both solving as well. Her "Explore" group, your students are failing high-stakes ways. They can embolden teachers to made up of her strongest readers, is state tests, it helps to have no-stakes take principled stands, keep them having difficulties with the excerpt diagnostics that identify early prob­ from betraying their professional from Jeri Ferris's Arctic Explorer: The lems, as well as exceptional gains. integrity and autonomy. But misgiv- Story of Matthew Henson. They're find-

16 Winter 1998/1999

ing it flat and dull. One girl says: "It's like they made a fact sheet and added on words." Another offers: "It doesn't have enough emo­ tion. Ifl made it to the North Pole, I would be jumping around. I would be so happy." Mark, the one boy in the group, seems at least partly receptive: "It was pretty bor­ ing, but I liked it a teeny bit." Joanne listens intently, and then gives a writing assignment. She challenges Explore to rewrite one of the offending paragraphs in which Matt Henson says good-bye to an explorer who was forced to turn back before reaching the Pole. The Joanne Toft with students at Marcy Open School in Minneapolis. students go to work, and then read their rewrites. One girl reads that worries Joanne. "I needed anoth­ stuff. It's an incredible amount of aloud: "It was sad the day Marvin left. er hour. I'm frustrated that I can't do work, but now I'm determined to It was a foggy day. Matt had gotten all I want to do. I don't have the pac­ make it work, and I'm determined to very close to George, Donald, and ing down with any of this yet. The keep this an open program." J.W. They had turned back a month attention deficit kids pick up when She's not looking at who signs her ago. They shook hands warmly. Then I'm getting frantic, and once I'm fran­ paycheck. She has new tools, and she's like a good sport, Marvin congratulat­ tic, they get frantic. It's harder to help testing and tuning them, finding out ed Matt. It was a touching scene." A them get centered this year." how and when to use them on the lan­ discussion ensues. On the other hand, she is finding guage needs of kids, knowing that the The other students describe what that the series gives her opportunities precision tool for one child may be a they like about the rewrite, why they to talk with her ESL students about blunt instrument for another. prefer it to the original. After a few vocabulary they'll need to grasp: She's moved her misgivings minutes, they seem talked out, but American idioms and words with dou­ aside. They are still there, just not then one of the more quiet girls says: ble meanings. "The series is strong on front and center. In the struggle "I feel like I'm a big-time editor." word history, meanings, spelling, between her doubts and her determi­ There's pride in Joanne's smile. She words from different countries. All of nation, determination is winning. In tells them: "You would make a great that is happening more easily." Her the contest between her professional editorial group." Enjoy group has become expert at identity and her powers of reinven­ Later Joanne recalls, "It was a "Oink, Oink, Oink"'s swine vocabu­ tion, reinvention has the upper hand. teachable moment. It was wonderful lary, playing with an array of pig­ In her daily drama to avert nonread­ to have the kids tear the paragraph inspired words and phrases: pigpen, ing lives, her kids are enacting their apart, and then do the rewrites. It was pigheaded, go hog-wild, pigtail, high on the literate and literary selves. --=- an experience we didn't have at all last hog, and when pigs fly. year. I love what happened when they It was not a flawless morning, but john G. Ramsay is the Hollis L. Caswell asked 'What's good writing and what Joanne knows she can't chastise her­ Professor of Educational Studies at Carleton isn't?' We had never moved to that self for the imperfections that come College in Northfield, Minnesota, where his three level before." with change. "I hope it makes a differ­ sons attend Greenvale Park Elementary School It was a whirlwind morning, and ence. The series has got some good and he serves on the Northfield School Board.

17 Riverbank Review

Meindert Dejong His prefound identification with the children in his novels made this Dutch American writer truly great. By Christine Heppermann

o write a good book for children, an adult must scale a pretty high fence. According to Meindert Dejong, the T Dutch-born author whose novel The Wheel on the School won the Newbery Medal in 1955, it is not enough for a writer to simply peer over the fence separating him from "the essence of childhood." He must make the climb Hans Christian Andersen Medal, and, and the descent. He must, as Dejong more importantly, after he had said in his Newbery acceptance speech, achieved his desire to write from the Illustration by Maurice Sendak, descend past adult memories, "down perspective of the "universal child." from The Wheel on the School through all the deep, mystic, intuitive Dejong's greatest children's nov­ layers of the subconscious back into els, all written in the 19 50s and 1960s allow him to do otherwise. His mind his own childhood ... Then, and only and illustrated with pen-and-ink draw­ blissfully fixates on the creature he has then, does he write for the child." ings by Maurice Sendak (soon to christened Shadrach, sight unseen, Descending into childhood for become famous for his own psycho­ scheduled to be delivered by Maartens Meindert Dejong meant returning to logical grasp of children's inner lives), the peddler in a week. Inside his head his birthplace, but only in spirit. His reveal an author who doesn't merely the "happy song" he made up by childhood home until the age of eight, describe his young protagonists; he improvising on an old hymn plays when his family moved to the United completely inhabits them. In the over and over: "Shadrach. Little black States, was a small Dutch fishing vil­ Newbery Honor-winning Shadrach rabbit. Fairest, fairest of ten thousand." lage much like the village of Shora in (1953), Dejong becomes-and allows Dejong's ability to express the The Wheel on the School. Dejong readers to become-Davie, a universal child within himself may did not travel to the young Dutch boy waiting excit­ have been fostered by his lifelong Netherlands in the course of edly (and none too patiently) for empathy with animals. During the writing this book. He pre­ the little black rabbit his grand- Depression, after an unsuccessful stint ferred to see the tower, the father has promised him. as a schoolteacher-one of many jobs dike, and the sea as they Never mind that Davie's he took over the years to support him­ existed in his childhood grandmother, grown-up that self at (and at times escape from) writ­ memories rather than view she is, can't see the point of ing- he and his wife moved to a farm. them through "the adult's spending "hours in that His older brother David recalled that knowing, measuring eye barn," peering into an empty farming brought Meindert "face to that reduces everything hutch, arranging lettuce and face and soul to soul with all the ani­ to size." He resisted clover, "and all for a rabbit mals he always loved" and marveled at going back to his vil- that isn't even there." his rapport with the livestock, saying, lage until 1962, after Illustration by Maurice Sendak, Davie's pure, irrepress­ "Why, he could even make a chicken he had won the from The House of Sixty Fathers ible enthusiasm won't act human!" No doubt Dejong used

18 Winter 1998/1999

himself as a model for Joe the bit as if he still had a family." farmhand in Along Came a Dog Relief arrives when American (1958), a sensitive, alternately airmen shelter Tien Pao in funny and heartbreaking novel their barracks. But the kind­ about the unusual relationship ness and relative comfort between a man, a chicken, and a offered by his American "sixty dog. Comparing Sendak's illus­ fathers" can't pacify him into tration of Joe cleaning the abandoning the search for his chicken coop to photographs of true family. He continues his the author, one can't help vigil at the rock near the bar­ noticing the resemblance: Joe racks, hoping to find his rela­ shares DeJong's angular chin, tives in the stream of weary thoughtful eyes, and swath of Chinese refugees trudging fair hair, as well as his affinity along the railroad tracks. for fowl. When the little red Thankfully for both readers hen, perched on Joe's shoulder and Tien Pao, his persistence in the picture, loses her toes to eventually pays off. frostbite, Joe can't bring himself Yet even the most harrow­ to tum her into fricassee, as any ing of DeJong's books exude a sensible farmer would. Instead certain gentleness and a mea­ he makes her his protected pet. sure of humor. His best The adult with a soft spot known work, The Wheel on the for down-on-their-luck birds School, probably provides the and beasts is a recurring charac­ most balanced display of his ter in DeJong's novels. Both writerly talents. Here he focus­ George, who works at the es not on one main character pound, and the retired sailor but on the six young students Meindert Dejong Captain Carlson, in the wrench- in a small Dutch school. The ingly beautiful Newbery Honor book they endure on the way there are so task the students and their teacher set Hurry Home, Candy (1953), have an eloquently described, so emotionally themselves is to encourage storks to intuitive understanding of how over­ real, they are often painful to read come back to nest in the village of whelming the world must appear to a about. The House of Sixty Fathers Shora, as they did years ago. Figuring shy stray dog. Candy, the scared stray, (1956), a book arising directly from out why the storks left requires an finally relaxes under the captain's care: DeJong's wartime experience in occu­ exercise in empathy, a chance, as vil- "It gradually began to form in the little pied China, recalls the dog's mind that this man accepted him anguish of a country as well as he was, that he didn't have to be as of a boy who becomes something different, do differently separated from his parents from what he was doing, do something and baby sister in Japanese better." Animals and children may be territory. Given DeJong's mas­ able to survive without this sense of tery at conveying intense feel­ security, DeJong's books suggest, but ing, Tien Pao's mental suffering Illustration by Maurice Sendak,.from Shadrach they can't flourish. Everyone needs the is almost harder for a reader to kind of freedom Candy comes to bear than the hunger, fatigue, and lage matron Grandmother Sibble III know for the first time in the captain's gunfire he encounters on his trek phrases it, to "try to think the way a house, the freedom to go "rushing up toward home. He clings desperately stork would think." Hunting for a the carpeted stairway and rushing right to his only traveling companion, the wagon wheel to serve as a flat nesting down again" without fear or shame. family pig, and calls it "Glory-of-the­ surface on the pointed schoolhouse While DeJong's characters usually Republic," a variation on his sister's roof draws the children out into the end up in a safe place, the hardships name, because "it made it feel a little community, where they gamer sup-

19 Riverbank Review

port for their project from unexpected sources. Legless Janus, reputedly the meanest man around, turns out to be an advocate and friend. Like Grandmother Sibble, he doesn't talk to a schoolchild as if he or she "were a tot, almost a baby, and miles of years away, the way grownups usually did." On the contrary, he seems to have more respect for the students than he does for adults. In church he chooses to park his wheelchair next to the chil­ dren's pew. And when a reporter omi­ nously proclaims in the local paper Nancy Willard that, due to a recent storm, all the storks must have perished during their A river runs through the town where I grew up. It is migration from Africa, Janus is out­ named for the Huron people, who lived and died raged. "But don't you kids stand there and tell me you took that silly scrib­ on its banks long before the white settlers arrived in bling to heart!" he screeches. "There Ann Arbor. My father canoed that river long before he sits, that inky printer in a cellar I was born, and many years later I canoed it with the somewhere in Amsterdam; buildings all around so high he can't even see as man I would marry. much as a square foot of sky. He and If you watch the river from the banks in the his inky fingers in his cellar!" The storks will not listen to the reporter's summer, you will see a story with long quiet chapters ignorant babble, reassures Janus, and of fishermen who come early in the morning, and neither should they. brief chapters of herons and red-winged blackbirds Dejong echoes Janus in his Newbery acceptance speech when he passing over the water at noon, and leisurely chapters laments the power grown-ups have to of fireflies and families with picnic baskets arriving direct children's thinking. "I have in the evening. long ago come to the wry definition that the child is a small body entirely If you travel the river, you travel a road that surrounded by adults-entirely too connects you to stories. Stories you can hardly much surrounded by adults." What 1magme. DeJong's novels do above all is step back and allow children space. The space to sing their own silly songs, Nanry Willard is an award-winning poet and children's author hatch their own plans, run noisily whose picture book A Visit to William Blake's Inn won the Newbery Medal in 1982. Her recent books include Step Lightly: about the house, seek comfort from Poems for the Journey, a poetry anthology (1998), and the pic­ adults when they need it. The space to ture books The Tortilla Cat (1998), Cracked Com and Snow envision storks on every rooftop and Ice Cream (1997), and The Magic Cornfield (1997), all pub­ to lie on dusty barn floors, extolling lished by Harcourt Brace. She teaches in the English Department at the praises of little black rabbits that ~ssar College. aren't even there. -=

Christine Heppermann is a member of the edi­ torial committee of the Riverbank Review. She lives with her husband and baby daughter in Minneapolis.

20 Winter 1998/1999

I Was a Bookstore Psychic Essay by Betsy Thomas

orking in a children's bookstore can bookseller can manage to identify many requested books be a great escape. Sure, your life may without the help of traditional outside sources. "Do you have the one where the frog wakes up and it's W be full of Big Issues, your coworkers winter?"3 a mom asks. might be a mess, but you're surrounded by books Why, yes, I think we do ... "Do you have the one where the mom is singing a that shimmer with bright promises. Hardly any song to her baby and then he grows up and sings it to her?"4 of the characters in children's books have to struggle to pay inquire a group of misty-eyed women. the mortgage, figure out their taxes, or put their parents Yes-yes, we do. into Assisted Living. Those are relatively easy requests to fulfill. But there Because these books of childhood are saturated with comes a time when communication breaks down, when vet­ cozy images (images that become memories linked to a eran booksellers recognize the only thing that's going to time when somebody else took care of all that icky big stuff work is tapping into their psychic powers. A quick example: like earning a living and cleaning the "Do you have the one-it's about a girl?" rain gutters), people who are now par­ Bookseller: (from the floor, where she is ents want to share those images with straightening one of the store's many their own little ones. And we, as book­ large walls of picture books) "Yes?" sellers, would love to aid them in this Customer: (helpfully) "It's a picture noble and beautiful pursuit! book." However, as we eventually learn, (Bookseller intuitively starts reaching, things are not always that eaSY,. One tapping into her psychic abilities.) problem in finding the Books of Our Customer: (thinks) "I know the author Youth is that children's books go out of did other books about her. .. " print fairly quickly (which is simply a big (Long pause.) gyp). Another problem is that, in their fevered quest for a Customer: "Oh, gosh, I'm blanking." beloved book from their past, people can never quite Bookseller: "Madeline? Linnea? Lilly? Eloise?" remember the titles or authors of those stories that brought Customer: "No, none of those." everyone so much pleasure and made such a lasting impres­ Bookseller: "What timeframe? Can you remember sion on their lives. a word in the title?" It's understandable. Everyone was young at the time Customer: "'Miss' something?" and many had their own special pet titles for their precious Bookseller: "Miss Rumphius?" 5 volumes, such as: "Soft!"1 or "Nigh-Nigh."2 But this tends Customer: "No, that's not it. I don't know, to complicate the job of the bookseller. maybe I dreamt it." In my years as a bookseller, I managed to come"up with (Bookseller concentrates.) one surefire way to solve this particular problem: I had to Customer: (suddenly) "'Smart' something?" become a Bookstore Psychic. At times, there is simply no Bookseller: (as the image of a book shimmers other way to satisfy the needs of the customer than to open into view in her inner eye) "Pn"ncess Smartypants?" 6 yourself up to the Spirit World and become a channel for Customer: (shrieks) "That's the one!" the book that is being sought. Through this technique, a How could we ever doubt the power of the Book

1 Could be Pat the Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt. 2 Most p robably Goodnight Moon, by Marga ret Wise Brown. 3 Froggy Gets Dressed, by Jonathan London. 4 Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch. 5 By Barbara Cooney. 6 By Babette Cole.

21 Riverbank Review

Spirits? And what would we do without them? You bet we do. "Do you have the one about a girl who makes dolls?" 7 "Do you have the one where the bunnies put eggshells Yes, we do. on the floor of their burrow?" 14 "Do you have the one that says, 'We're so glad Yes, I think we have that one. you're here'?" 8 Book Spirits are by nature quite friendly. They often Of course we do! look down with kindness on those of us who are trying to Even the modern-day magic of computers with their connect people with books. Try to get in touch with the fabulous word searches is of little help at times. Sometimes Spirits yourself on this request: customers have to offer more than just verbal clues in order "Do you have the ones by an author, I can't remember to stimulate the bookseller's ability to make contact with her name, but it's Asian and starts with 'Fug'?" the Spirit World. I've had people act out short dramatic We decide to start with the tools at hand, rather than pieces for me. Some have had to sing: disturb the Spirit World this early in the morning. We start "Do you have the one that goes (customer sings loudly, tapping away at the computer and call up a list of authors with abandon), 'I bought me a cat, my cat pleased me .. .'?" 9 whose names begin with 'Fug.' It is staggering. Hundreds of Yes, we do. names appear on the screen. Could the customer be a little Some requests seem benign and obvious, but the alert more specific? bookseller will want to keep their psychic powers at the ready. "Well," she thinks hard. "Actually, I think she might be "Do you have that time travelers book?" queries a the illustrator. Can you look it up?" mother with her seven-year-old boy. Well, of course she People give too much power to machines, we think wants the Time Warp Trio by John Scieszka. The bookseller grimly to ourselves. Could the customer think of any helpfully hands her the first book in the series. Suddenly words that might appear in the titles? another boy, about eleven, drifts into view. His mother "Uh ... something with 'Friends'? .. . or 'Tiny ani­ hands the book to him cheerfully. "Here it is!" mals'?" A hundred thousand fuzzy, friendly titles begin to Oh, no. No, no, no. Psychic alert! The bookseller sug­ swarm around in the bookseller's head. Apparently this gests politely that perhaps that particular series is a bit activity awakens the spirits, who rush to our aid. young for this reader. Miraculously, we are presented with the correct answer. 15 "The book I want is on his reading list," says the moth­ Unfortunately, there are times when even the best er. That clinches it. No sixth-grade teacher would assign a Bookstore Psychic can't deliver the goods ... beginning reader series. But the mother can remember no Do you have the sequel to Harry Potter? other clues. Neither can either boy. This could be an all­ The sequel to The Subtle Knife? day job, a prospect that will serve neither the bookseller The sequel to Captain Underpants? nor the customer at all well. Through psychic ability, A The sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird? Wrinkle in Time makes a swift appearance in the bookseller's Not yet! They haven't been published (or written) yet consciousness. (or ever)! "Oh, of course! That's the one!" Books for nine-year-old boys. Books for sixth-grade We thank thee most humbly, gracious and powerful girls who are voracious readers. Books for seven-year-olds Book Spirits. who don't like to read. Books for children who are at "Do you have the one about the three dolls that live home, not feeling well. There are the obvious choices, in a house that gets abandoned?" 10 there are the easy choices, but the books that will be read Yes. We love that one. and loved are the books that swim to mind (with the aid of "Do you have The Headless Horseman?"" shelves full of possibilities) as the customer and bookseller This is almost a trick question, sir. But yes, we do. talk about the child. "Do you have the one where the family has five girls?" 12 "What's the best book in the whole world for a four­ Yes, we do. year-old girl?" 16 -=- "Do you have the one where the animals go on adven­ 13 tures together?" Betsy Thomas is a bookseller/psychic/writer who lives in Minneapolis.

7 Go/du tht Dol/maktr, by M. B. Goffstein. 8 On tht Da_)' You ~rt Born, by Debra Frasier. 9 Cat Goes Fidd/L-1-Ftt, by Paul Galdone. IO Tht H1ddm Housr, by Martin Waddell. 11 Tht Ltgmd ofS!~tpy Hollow, by Washington Irving. 12 All-ofa-Kmd Fami[y, by Sydney Taylor. 13 Frtdd]• Cots to Flonda, by Walter R. Brooks. 14 Humbug Rabbit, by Loma Balian. IS Bai!y Animals, by Gyo Fu1ikawa. 16 This is a question best answered by_your loca l bookstore psychic!

22 Winter 1998/1999

Ten Great Poetry Collections

The Beauty of the Beast Sing a Song of Popcorn Selected by Jack Prelutsky Selected by Beatrice Schenk Illustrated by Meilo So de Regniers et al.

KNOPF, 1997 I hardcover: $25.00 Illustrated by nine YOUNGER/INTERMEDIATE Caldecott Medal artists Animals ofall sorts flit, swoop, tromp, and SCHOLASTIC, 1988 I hardcover: $18.95 slither through poems ofall sorts, most by YOUNGER contemporary poets writing/or children. Vibrant With sections on rhymes, weather, spooky poems, watercolor illustrations add to the excitement. animals, and more, this anthology radiates warmth-an invitation to the pleasures ofpoetry Celebrate America for children in the primary grades. Selected by Nora Panzer Artwork from the National Talking Like the Rain Museum of American Art Selected by X. ]. Kennedy and

HYPERION, 1994 / hardcover: $18.95 Dorothy M. Kennedy INTERMEDIATE /OL DER Illustrated by Jane Dyer America's varied landscapes, cultural legacies, UTILE, BROWN, 1992 I hardcover: $19.95 seasonal rhythms-and the voices ofher YOUNGER people-are brought to compelling life in the A strong selection ofpoems for young children work ofpoets and artists. appears in a generous!Ji sized volume .featuring Mother Gave a Shout charming illustrations and a ribbon bookmark. Classic Poems to Read Aloud Selected by Susanna Steele Selected by James Berry and Morag Styles Talking to the Sun Various illustrators Illustrated by Jane Ray Selected by Kenneth Koch

KINGFISHER, 1995 I hardcover: $16.95, VOLCANO, 1991 I hardcover:$ 14.95 and Kate Farrell paperback: $ 7. 9 5 INTERMEDIATE Artwork from the Metropolitan INTERMEDIATE /OL DER These poems by women and girls are alive with Museum of Art

This volume ranges across countn.es, cultures, rhythm and rich in cultural perspectives. Crisp HENRY H OLT, 1985 I hardcover: $26.95 and centuries: Shakespeare joins Neruda, Yeats, pen-and-ink illustrations complement reflections INTERMEDIATE /O LDER Sitting Bull traditional African poets, and the wide world. on pl.ay, work, rel.ationships, A treasure chest fall ef art and poetry from many Sandburg, Walcott, and many others. times and pl.aces, this book is a cl.assic, notable for The Place My Words its vigor and accessibility as well as its variety. The Invisible Ladder Are Looking For Selected by Liz Rosenberg Selected by Paul B. Janeczko This Same Sky Photographs of the poets Photographs of the poets Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye HENRY H OLT, 1996 I hardcover: $17.95 BRADBURY, 1990 I hardcover, SIMON & FOUR WINDS, 1992 I paperback, SIMON & OLDER SCHUSTER: $16.00 SCHUSTER: $8.99

This fine introduction to contemporary INTERMEDIATE OLDER American poetry presents forty poets: What does it mean to be a poet? This thoughifully Beginning with poems from japan, their poems, their statements about poetry arranged collection ofpoems and short prose Estonia, Sweden, Greece, and Bangladesh, and childhood, and engaging photographs reflections from thirty-nine contemporary poets this volume presents the voices of 129 ef them as children and adults. explores that question. contemporary poets from 68 countries.

23 Riverbank Review

Picture Books wear his yellow boots, he takes them saves the day by the ingenuity of his out of the box they came in, tries performance is his triumph. ~ them on, and stamps around; "Y is for Commedia dell'arte and six­ yellow," and Alfie delights in his new teenth-century Italy are unplumbed as Alfie's ABC yellow boots. subjects and setting for picture books By Shirley Hughes No one draws little children more for American children, which makes LoTH ROP, LEE & SHEPARD 32 pages, Ages 1-5, $16. 00 convincingly than Hughes. Individual me value this story right away. But I pictures, taken from her many books think reading this book with a child is Hardly a year goes by without the featuring Alfie, float on the page alone going to be a lot of work. As a trial run appearance of an ABC that seems or in a group. At times a picture fills the I read it aloud, imagining I was reading designed to advertise the artist. You page, as it does for M, when Alfie stands it to my twin grandsons. I imagined know the type of book-visually strik­ in a patch of light and gazes up at a pointing out correspondences between ing, at times original, a banquet for twirling moon. It's a shining moment, little Angelo's pursuit of clownhood the eye. It's harder to find an ABC showing not only the wonderful moon and the lovely watercolors in the style that serves the original purpose of but a child's perception of the great, of Tiepolo that accompany the story. teaching the letters to children with­ expanding world beyond his door. Sometimes it was hard to tell which out becoming dull. I'm talking about ABC books rise and fall on their characters were pictured and which an ABC that meets young children depiction ofQand X. In A!fie'sABC, scene was being depicted. I was disap­ right where they are- petting the cat X is for Xylophone, a fine old-fash­ pointed to find that at the moment an and splashing in puddles. ioned choice. More interesting by far aristocrat appears with only one red A!fie's ABC, by Shirley Hughes, is is the quirky letter Q "Q is for velvet glove (a significant moment in such a book, an ABC that does much Qyestions." Well, of course. What the story), I couldn't see the ungloved more than label ordinary objects, yet more could you ask? hand in the accompanying illustra­ accomplishes its job of representing -Mary Lou Burket tion. In the crowd scenes at the Piazza every letter with an image. On the San Marco, I couldn't tell the clowns opening page, the universal preschool from the other participants. Though Bravo, Zan Angelo! boy curls up to read a book with his the wash of pale colors was beautiful A Commedia dell'Arte Tale baby sister, Annie Rose: "A is for to look at, it took a long time to dis­ By Niki Daly Alfie." Though Alfie's world is full of tinguish the content of the pictures. FARRAR, STRAUS & G IROUX things that millions of children know, 36 pages, Age 5 and up, $16.00 Similarly, the text seemed to contain it is still particular to him-his best jokes that would have meaning only to friend has a name, as do his neigh­ Bravo, Zan Angelo! is the story of a a fairly sophisticated adult. That the bors, and his grandma drives a "little young boy who wants to appear on rooster who chases Angelo is named red car." the commedia dell'arte stage like his Bardolino, after the wine, is a witticism Sentences, rather than single grandfather. The grandfather, a that would be lost on all but the most words or phrases, complete the scene clown whose audience is dwindling, worldly and well-traveled of children. on every page. Alfie doesn't simply doesn't like the idea. That Angelo Still, the final scene, rendered in a

24 Winter 1998/1999

two-page drawing, is wonderful. The The drawings are pure Provensen, older clowns gather around Angelo, simple yet sophisticated, everything who is dressed in a rooster costume loosely outlined and slightly offbeat Chum the butter, made up of materials he has gathered and, in this case, irresistibly miniatur­ from various artisans. When, center ized. Different readers will have differ­ stage, he gives his triumphal "Cock-a­ ent favorites-mine is The Book ef doodle-doo !" before an entranced Children (number four) because I am audience of masked Venetians, it is a particularly fond of the way Provensen charming and satisfying moment. draws children; she shows such affec­ -Mary Moore Easter tion and respect for their personhood with their serious, watchful faces. Each page of book number four shows a dif­ Count on Me: ferent group of four children playing 10 Books in a Box with toys, eating lunch, kicking a soc­ Illustration by Erik Blegvad,from By Alice Provensen cer ball, attending a birthday party. Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear HARCOURT B RACE 12 pages each, Ages 1-3, $14.95 The final illustration presents four chil­ dren tucked separately into their love­ Bodecker. Bodecker died in 1988 after The format of Alice Provensen's board ly beds; each bed has a personality, writing and illustrating over forty book Count on Me is ten tiny books each blanket a different cozy pattern­ books himself; we are told on the jack­ that fit neatly into a 3 1/4-inch-square everything reflecting perfect four-ness. et flap that Erik Blegvad was the only box-one book for each number from The Book ifBerries (number ten) is also person Bodecker would allow to inter­ one to ten. Each numbered book has wonderful. Berries have such delicious, pret his work. Easy to see why. Blegvad's its own counting theme; for example, incantatory names, and this book illustrations combine whimsy and grav­ book number one is The Book ofBabies, includes such exotic fruits as huckle­ ity in a perfect complement to the text. berries, boysenberries, and gooseber­ His grandmotherly Mary is very hurried ries-bright fingerprints of color and very dear, engaged body and soul tempting the counter to make it to ten. in the preparations for winter that are The books are short and sweet­ dictated by her bossy, lazy husband. twelve little pages and a bright cover "Not a minute to be lost," he frets in the with a bold number, front and back. first few pages, "in an hour we get frost." Each spine forms a portion of a puz­ A list of pre-winter tasks follows: pick­ zle-a bright red apple appears when ing apples, dilling pickles, digging up the spines are lined up correctly from turnips, putting up tomatoes and jam, one to ten-a visual reward for proper and more, all performed by Mary alone. sequence. Count on Me makes a won­ Blegvad's illustrations enliven the derful present for any child, combin­ simple pacing of Bodecker's verse; ing the pleasures of counting and cat­ Mary is both rushed and thoroughly egorizing with an introduction to the alive in the moment. She is a wonderful mustration by Alice Provensen,from Count on Me: 10 Books in a Box details of the natural world. granny figure-wiry and capable with -Margaret Willey her long nose and puff of white hair, book number two The Book of Traffic, strong enough to chop down trees, haul book number three The Book ef the bushels of apples, carry stacks of wood. Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear Farm, and so on. The tiny size of the Some of these tasks children will recog­ By N. M. Bodecker box and books is an invitation to small nize; some will be new to them­ Illustrated by Erik Blegvad hands, the bright colors and charming chores that their own parents have M CELDERRY illustrations are an invitation to the 32 pages, Age 7 and up, $16.00 probably never done, like smoking eyes, and the delightful themes are an hams and oiling snowshoes. The details invitation to find in the natural world In Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear, Erik of farm life are cozily presented-toast a feast of people, animals, and objects Blegvad illustrates a nonsense rhyme and tea by a roaring fireplace, spent waiting to be counted. written by fellow Dane, N. M. orchards and gardens, the pretty farm-

25 Riverbank Review

house with its gingerbread trim. I espe­ foot! Dig, Little Clam, dig!" A ruckus The Six Swans cially loved Blegvad's rendering of ensues in which the little clam swiftly By Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm autumn landscape shown through win­ defends himself, and then the return­ Translated by Anthea Bell dows in the monochromatic rooms of ing tide brings calm: "Sleep, Little Illustrated by Dorothee Duntze the farmhouse-the peach and violet Clam, sleep. The waves roll high above N ORTH-SOUTH sunsets, the intermittent spots of color you. The sand is snug around you." 32 pages, Ages 5-8, $16.95 from an orange leaf or a last tomato. A The connection to the perils and black cat follows Mary from task to comforts of a child's life is made One function of fairy tales is to task, scurrying, watching, sleeping­ directly at the end of the story, when explore the ambiguities and anti­ children will love finding it on the page. the mother kisses her slumbering child pathies of familial bonds-including All colors are faintly melancholy, which and says, "Sleep tight, my little clam." the inherent pitfalls of such bonds­ balances the "nonsense" of the verse, But the deeper meanings of the clam which explains why illustrated fairy making Mary's life and the coming of story are suggested from the very start: tales make nice presents for reflective winter anything but nonsense. on the title page the mother is pic­ adults. Dorothee Duntze's version of Yet there is humor-and a punch tured as the ocean (holding the blue the Grimms' "The Six Swans" is no line. As Mary's husband's instructions quilt in front of her like a wave), and exception. Duntze has already estab­ grow more childish and unrea­ the child as the clam (with a pillow for lished herself as a masterful interpreter sonable-"bring my glasses, mail my a shell), echoing the cover image of an of fairy tales with her illustrated ver­ letters"-and Mary's patience is ocean wave about to engulf a clam. sions of The Twelve Dancing Princesses pushed to the limit, dear Mary comes The child's red hair and red striped and The Emperor's New Clothes. Here undone. In the final illustration, the pajamas are the same shade as the again, she uses highly stylized figures, husband sits with a well-deserved exposed siphons and foot of the clam. opulent colors, and mysterious details teapot over his head and the book ends The book is enlivened by visual to create both the haunted interiors in the realm of slapstick. A neat trick­ devices that pull text and art together. and the foreboding landscapes of the for such a short, simple story to go Onomatopoeic text ("SQUIRT," fairy-tale realm. from silly to profound and back again. "SNAP!") is incorporated in some of As in other classic fairy tales in - Margaret Willey the pictures, and the words of the which bands of brothers are enchant­ predators streak across the page, closing ed and banished ("The Twelve in on the unsuspecting clam. In an Brothers" and "The Seven Ravens" are Little Clam afterword, Reiser recommends some two other examples), the sister in The By Lynn Reiser parent-child horseplay in a sequence of Six Swans is separated from her broth­ GREENW!UOW 32 pages, Ages 3-7, $15. 00 pictures of the mother pulling back the ers, who have been changed into quilt ("The tide going out") and tuck­ swans. The bereft sister must sew them Like her recent Cherry Pies and ing the child in ("Sleep tight"). shirts from starflowers and refrain Lullabies and Best Friends Think Alike, Designed for repeated readings, Little from speaking a single word for six Lynn Reiser's Little Clam is rich in pat­ Clam is both refreshing and reassuring. years in order to break the spell. Her terns, beginning with the endpapers, - Susan Marie Swanson suffering at being separated from her here a quilt pattern rendered in water­ color and black pen. There are two "Little Clam"s-the clam in a mother's bedtime story, and her child, snuggled under a wave-pat­ terned quilt, who listens to the story in his seaside bedroom. One day, the real clam forgets to bury himself when the tide goes out and narrowly escapes being devoured by gull, conch, and sea star. He's lost in his own thoughts. The crab and scallop call out, "Pull in your long siphons. Stick out your strong Illustration by Dorothee Duntze, from The Six Swans

26 Winter 1998/1999 brothers is made worse by the fact that "And the moral of the story is ..." The she cannot describe or explain her trouble is, fables need the crowning predicament to anyone. After a series pearl of a lesson in the same way that of misunderstandings with the King, jokes need punch lines. who, despite her muteness, has mar­ Lane Smith's artwork, a busy mix ried her, she is sentenced to die, then of textured and sometimes exquisitely saved at the final minute by her decorated oil painting and collage, is winged brothers. They are trans­ gorgeous and, as usual, verges on the formed back into men-except for grotesque. Molly Leach's loud and one brother, who retains a wing in playful graphic design tends to clob­ place of an arm. A happy ending, but ber us over the head-every page cries not without its scar. out: "LOOK at ALL this TERRIFIC Anthea Bell's translation does not design!" It's fun for a while and I cer­ deviate from the classic version-the tainly know which words to EMPHA­ storytelling is understated and SIZE when I'm reading out loud, but straightforward; the illustrations ignite the design overwhelms the text. and animate the story. Much is done Scieszka smartly places his tales in mustration by George Littlechild,from with shadows and light, with odd inte­ What's the Most Beautiful Thing You a world recognizable and accessible to riors, with disorienting perspectives, Know about Horses? modern kids: homework, TV com­ with small, ominous details-a stolen mercials, skateboaring, and lunch­ baby's left-behind toy, a menacing and redefined the characters from rooms are featured. But in the end, his human face decorating the outside of familiar tales in their first two books stories don't propose a moral so much a cabin, a witch who reappears in together, and, in an inspired move, as they ask this question: "Do you get miniature at the story's "happy" end­ breathed life into plodding mathemati­ the joke? Are you cool enough to get ing. Duntze's attention to clothing­ cal word problems in the award-win­ it?"-which is, of course, the question including the shirts sewn out of ning Math Curse. Their staggering pop­ that the kids who will love this book starflowers-is particularly marvelous. ularity arises from a formula that com­ want to be asked, because they can Be warned: this is necessarily a melan­ bines cutting-edge wit, sure talent, and answer, "Yes! I get it! I belong!" And choly tale. Landscapes are haunted, a predilection for mischief-making. that's what this book sells them: the interiors are sinister, the overall tone Formulas can falter. Squids Will Be same essential feeling of belonging of the book is gloomy, even when the Squids pretends to be a book of fables, that their new Gap khakis give them. drawings include a wide expanse of but it is really a sardonic riff on the -Christine Alfano sky. Although some overly sensitive idea of fables, a punch in the tummy children might find The Six Swans a bit of the notion that a story might have What's the Most Beautiful Thing too nightmarish, older children and a lesson. Scieszka does reproduce the You Know about Horses? adults who appreciate classic fairy succinct rhythm and framework of By Richard Van Camp tales will be enthralled. fables, and creates a fresh cast of Illustrated by George Littlechild -Margaret Willey intriguing characters with decidedly C HIWREN'S BOOK PRESS human characteristics (an insult-sling­ 32 pages, Age 6 and up, $15.95 ing blowfish, a self-centerd slug, a Squids Will Be Squids: haughty piece of toast), but he toys To anyone who usually spends frigid Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables with these tales' lessons to such an winter days lumped on the couch, By Jon Scieszka extent that he deflates their meaning. flipping channels or staring self-pity­ Illustrated by Lane Smith The moral of the story is in some cases ingly out the window, Richard Van VIKING 42 pages, Age 7 and up, $17.99 a bad joke (as in the story about fart­ Camp sends a message: defrost your ing which ends, "He who smelt it dealt mind. Living in Canada's Northwest Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith have it") and in others, absurd commen­ Territories, he knows days so cold "the made it their mission to "goof" with tary. Obviously, Scieszka wants to ravens refuse to fly" and his father's traditional forms in children's litera­ erase the stiff propriety and finger­ truck-nicknamed the "Green ture. They boldly upended the plots wagging seriousness from the phrase Death"-refuses to start. His own

27 Riverbank Review response to the weather is not to shut one such subzero bonechiller; the half white and half Dogrib Indian ("The down, but to rev up his curiosity by answers Van Camp receives reveal as good news about all this is I could be asking himself, his family, and his much about the people he talks to as the cowboy or the Indian when we used friends questions. The title of his lively, they do about the animal that has to play Guns," he says with blunt highly personal prose poem, "What's always been such a mystery to him. humor); his tribe raises dogs instead of the Most Beautiful Thing You Know Horses are mysterious to Van horses for hunting, hauling, and com­ about Horses?," provides the topic for Camp because of his background. He is panionship. But, in keeping with the book's overall spirit of open-minded­ ness, Van Camp wants to reach out to anyone who can tell him something Need Some Expen Advice about the elusive equine. "IfI could, I'd shake hooves with all the horse tribes," he says. In fact he has joined hands on Books for Young People? with one horse tribe member-illustra­ tor George Littlechild, a friend from the Turn to The Horn Book Magazine. Plains Cree nation. Littlechild's child­ like line and bursts of color and pat­ tern suit the text's unfettered style as it For 15 Years, roams from creative musings such as "Do horses think fireworks are strange The Horn Book Magazine has been flowers blooming in the sky?" to visu­ the leading authority on children's alizing his vain brother Johnny's hair literature. Proud of our illustrious as a mane that would "shiver and heritage and looking toward our ignite as he ran." promising future, we continue our Van Camp receives numerous unique and poetic answers to his horse tradition of reviewing and recom­ question. His father thinks the most mending the best new books beautiful thing about them is that being published today. "they always know their way home." His friend Mike doesn't like them The Horn Book Magazine also "because you feel great all day when contains lively, opinionated you ride them but after that you feel articles on current topics and trends in children's literature. bowlegged." More enlightening than Regular columns on popular paperbacks, international any individual response is the way Van Camp casually ties everything togeth­ children's books, audiobooks, and young adult literature er. He tells us that the word for horse will keep you abreast of the latest news and developments in the Dogrib language means "big in books for young people. dog," and this causes him to wonder, "Do horses call dogs 'little cousins'? The Magazine is essential reading for parents, teachers, When horses and dogs talk to each librarians, booksellers, and others who are actively other, what do you think they say?" involved with young people and books. On the surface, his narrative traces a connection between dogs and horses, A new one-year subscription (6 issues) is just $24.95. but it also implies a link between peo­ ple. No matter who we are or where we Visit www.hbook.com are from, we can always find a com­ or call 1-800-325-1110. TheHorn mon ground. If it's not horses or dogs, it could be eagles or frogs or any crea­ BOOK 1nc. 56 R OLAND STREET, SUITE 200 • B OSTON MA 02129 ture on earth, including ourselves. For Van Camp, the logical next step from

28 Winter 1998/1999 asking "What's the most beautiful This book challenges us as readers, Jeanne Steig's retellings of thing you know about horses?" is to whether we are eleven or fifty, to "Rumpelstiltskin," "Beauty and the ask, "And what's the most beautiful think about how we, as a country and Beast," "Hansel and Gretel," "Little thing you know about you?" as citizens, treat those who work so Red Riding Hood," "The Frog Prince," -Christine Heppermann hard to bring us food and clothing, and "Jack and the Beanstalk" are splen­ and who often are hungry and cold did. Her language is natural and direct themselves. Through this collection and yet so artful that when you read Fiction of stories, each of which can stand on her words, people wander in from the ~ its own, and altogether which create a next room to listen. Steig is a nimble portrait of a fine family and a sensi­ poet, and she slips into verse when the The Circuit: Stories from the Life tive young man, we glimpse the kind tales inspire it-when spells are cast, of a Migrant Child of life many children in this country when dreams plant messages, when By Francisco Jimenez lead. In The Circuit, Jimenez has characters cry out for understanding or U NIVERSITY OF N EW M EXJCO PRESS 134 pages, Age 10 and up, $10.95 taken us inside a way of life, in all its break into song-without disturbing sweetness and all its sorrow. It is a the narrative flow. It is something like The stories in this book build on each valuable book for young people, the effect of a dancer who walks along other beautifully. When I finished both for its artistic value and for the and every so often performs a leap that reading them I felt I knew not only issues it illuminates. makes you realize the walking itself Panchito, the narrator, but also a lot -Julie Landsman was a kind of dance as well. more about the day-to-day life of Small touches bring the pulse of migrant workers in the United States. these stories to the surface. The greed A Handful of Beans: With Panchito, I experienced his broth­ that sets events in motion in Six Fairy Tales er's illness, his search for a dry place to "Rumpelstiltskin" is expressed vividly: Retold by Jeanne Steig sleep, the kindness of a conductor on a the first time the girl spins straw into Illustrated by William Steig family's old, care­ gold, the king is described as "happy as train. I moved in his H ARFERC OLUNS fully maintained car from place to 144 pages, All ages, $17.95 a hog with a herring." It is a kind of place on the "circuit," from strawberry greed that motivates Rumpelstiltskin, picking to cotton picking to grape har­ In recent years, fairy tales have been too, but readers will feel empathy for vesting in the Southern states and into fractured, inverted, politicized, re-gen­ the gnarled, lonely little creature when California. I went to school with him, dered, plumbed to their psychoanalyt­ he proclaims: "I can enter a twice­ when he was able to go, and agonized ic depths, and-only the readers have locked room, I Or tum a billygoat into along with him as he struggled with suffered. As this small volume proves, a broom, I I can spin riches, silver and English. I also became nervous when the traditional tales retain their power. gold- I 'Tis a living creature I long to the authorities came through the They only require a graceful teller and hold." In "Beauty and the Beast," when camps looking for illegal immigrants. an inspired artist to bring them to life. the self-deprecating monster complains (His father has a green card, but his that he is foolish as well as ugly, mother and sisters and brothers do insightful Beauty assures him, "If not, and are all Mexican born.) you were foolish, you would not Without sentimentality or know it ... " Her intelligence is melodrama, but rather with the emphasized along with her com­ simple power and grace of a fine passion. Empathy is a gentle storyteller, Jimenez is able to con­ thread running through all the sto- vince us of the narrator's authentic­ ries: when Jack's mother throws ity, his good-heartedness, and the the handful of beans out the good-heartedness of his fam ily. window and sends him to his We like him immensely and do room, he goes to bed "feeling not feel pity for him because he hungry and angry and sad. To does not seem to feel pity for him­ make matters worse, he knew self. Yet as we continue to read, we Illustration by William Steig,.from A his poor mother was feeling the same." begin to feel a healthy discomfort. Handful of Beans: Six Fairy Tales William Steig's illustrations pro-

29 Riverbank Review

vide the perfect complement to these at school, the special ed. caseworkers), young woman slips a small boat into tales. His princesses and ogres, chil­ and some, like his mom, with their the water at night, tucks her bundled dren and animals, beasts and crones own sets of problems. His mom is baby into the bow, and rows across are rustic and lumpy. The warm and doing her best, working overtime in a the wild, windy bay, we're hooked. earthy pictures welcome identifica­ beauty parlor to make ends meet, try­ Alison Lester has set her tale in the tion with the characters and their ing to make sure Joey takes his med­ hinterlands of Australia's southern plights; it is the language that offers ications, but when she gets home she coast, the terrain referenced by a transcendence. Fairy tales belong to needs to relax with a few Mountain hand-drawn map. all of us, A Han4ful of Beans suggests, Dew and Amaretto cocktails. She fig­ It is in part the story ofJoycie and and this lovely book gives the reader ures it's all right to let Joey eat peanut little Joe, whom we follow across the the feeling that they're reading these butter cups for breakfast because bay to a hideaway in the headland, well-traveled stories for the first time. "peanut butter is good for you." We safely removed from the town in which As the narrator asks in the couplet realize that Joey's life isn't unduly Joycie suffered the loss of her husband that closes "Beauty and the Beast": swayed by saints or demons-he has in a senseless fight. Joycie, perceived as "And what more could you wish? The to rely on whoever is there to help different, even "wild," by her neigh­ moon on a dish?" him. The characters in this story com­ bors, decides to escape the wildness of -Martha Davis Beck pose the only, if somewhat ragged, the society that surrounds her. safety net he's got. Having convincingly staged their It's disquieting sometimes the drowning Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (capsizing the dinghy with way Gantos flirts with tragedy in his By Jack Gantos a decoy load of supplies), Joycie fiction, squeezing comedy out of truly arrives in the bush equipped with the FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX terrible situations. When Joey sneaks a essentials: a tomahawk, 160 pages, Age 10 and up, $16. 00 blankets, a pair of sharp scissors out of his cast iron cooking pot, a cigarette Welcome to ten-year-old Joey Pigza's teacher's desk and, in his manic way, lighter, a sewing box, water contain­ world: born "wired" and bouncing off runs with them, trips, and accidentally ers, a .22 rifle, a warm coat, a good the walls, he was left by his mom and slices off the end of another student's knife and sharpening stone-and a dad when he was in kindergarten, and nose, Gantos plays it almost for laughs, waterproof tin full of Phantom comic stayed with short-fused Grandma until with blood spurting everywhere and books! As the years pass, she and Joe Mom finally "got it together" and came Joey comparing the piece of flesh to grow vegetables, catch fish, make fur­ home. Now Joey careens through his "the tiny end of a piece of sliced niture out of driftwood, and turn the days like a spring-released pinball, banana." But Gantos's comedy is giant vertebrae of a beached whale bumping into and spinning off of all of never bleak or hopeless, it's a neces­ into a jungle gym. When they need the teachers, nurses, and special educa­ sary coping device in a world fraught provisions, they pilfer them from a tion assistants that a kid like him is like­ with problems. store that serves the few cattle drovers ly to run into. By "kid like him," I Joey Pigza and his mom are who venture into the bush. mean children with Attention Deficit champion capers. By the end of this The Quicksand Pony is also the Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). extraordinary novel, we are sharply story of Biddy, a girl whose family In an unflagging, intense, alter­ aware of their limitations but awed, grazes cattle on the headland. Biddy's nately horrific and hilarious first-per­ also, by their resiliance. Gantos does­ connection to Joycie has two threads: son narrative, Jack Gantos pulls us n't allow us to pity Joey-he lets us Joycie is the aunt of Biddy's friend, headlong into the strange, jangled understand him. Irene, and Biddy also shares Joycie's world that Joey inhabits. This is not -Chn"stine Alfano independent spirit. She herself is Klickitat Street and these are not the named for a convict who, shipped Qiimbys. This novel presents a clear The Q!llcksand Pony from the British Isles to Tasmania, picture of a kid at risk, and shows us escaped to the headland By Alison Lester where she ADHD from the inside out. H OUGHTON M IFFUN survived for a time in the wild. Beyond Joey, Gantos presents an 160 pages, Ages 10-14, $15.00 Biddy's grandfather tells her, "Your array of "supporting" personalities: mum reckoned that if you had half some well-meaning, but with limited The Quicksand Pony is a great read. her guts, you'd be all right." reserves of time and energy (the staff From the opening pages in which a Having guts is sometimes not

30 Winter 1998/1999

enough. Joycie falls ill and dies when eighty years old, but the kind of eighty ing; with its many strict conditions, it Joe is nine, and it is he alone whose that is really old, like the grandmoth­ can't help but be disrupted. path winds near-and ultimately ers in fairy tales." Disruption, indeed, arrives in the crosses with-that of Biddy and her It is, in fact, the fairy-tale quality shape of Victoria-the bossy, unstop­ family, on their annual trek into the of Ernest's oh-so-limited existence pable, frank new girl at school. bush to round up steers. Joe is lonely that keeps it from being truly sad. Victoria, like all the girls, is instantly for his mother, scared of the people From the start, Ernest's regulated drawn to Ernest, but Ernest can see she has taught him to fear, but curious world, though hardly enchanted (he that she is "different from the others." enough to hover near Biddy's family, has never eaten a cookie), is intrigu- Their mutual love is sudden, grand, leaving clues of his presence: he braids their horses' manes, steals some bacon, and, in a bold move, rescues This Land Is Your Land Biddy's horse from the quicksand when she gets bogged. In the end, Joe is brought into town to live with Irene's family. Though he is shy and a bit over­ whelmed, at the story's end he holds in his arms a soft, cuddly puppy, a soothing successor to the dingo he befriended and cared for in the wild. It is a gentle and perhaps appropriately inconclusive ending to this tale of life on two sides of a wild, windy bay. -Martha Davis Beck

Secret Letters from 0 to 10 By Susie Morgenstern VIKJNG 137 pages, Ages 9-12, $15.99

This is the sweetly comical story of a ten-year-old named Ernest, who has *"Stunning .... Gorgeous .... spent his entire life obeying routines, This bool< is a treasure." never making any friends, and never -ALA Booklist (starred review) asking any questions. And there are plenty of questions to ask. Is his father * "Exuberant.... Jakobsen provides a rich and shifting alive? Why doesn't his grandmother harmony to a favorite folk song ... . Superb." leave the house? What was his grand­ -Horn Book (starred review) father trying to say to her in the letter * "This effort is what great picture books are all about .... he wrote in code before he died? Destined to become a favorite .. .& om coast to coast." Ernest's family has been tossed by -School Library Journal (s tarred review) several of "history's little accidents"- wars, mostly, as well as the death of * "[A] beautiful homage to America." Ernest's mother during his birth and -Publishers Weekly (s tarred review) the disappearance of his father. It's All Ages • $15.95 ($15.45) • 0-316-39215-4 been more than Ernest's grandmother can take: "Ernest always had the impression that if she moved too I* ILi ttle, Brown and Company much, she would disintegrate. She was

31 Riverbank Review

and innocent. It leads to waves of particular debt to three books. Weir intertwined in Elizabeth's character change in Ernest's life. has more space and scholarly resources and knotted around her heart." Author Susie Morgenstern was for extended discussions: in one pas­ Behind the Mask does not simplify born in New Jersey but lives in France sage that might interest teen readers, a life full of confusing power struggles. and, according to her author bio, is she describes the lives of the young It attends to essentials: key events in one of France's most successful chil­ maids who served the queen; in anoth­ the life of Elizabeth I, and aspects of dren's writers. In its original edition, er she discourses expertly on the mys­ that life that spoke most vividly to the Secret Letters .from 0 to JO received le Prix terious death of the wife of Elizabeth's author of this fine biography. Totem, France's highest honor for a favorite at court, Robert Dudley. -Susan Marie Swanson children's book. The story is set in Thomas's book is a solid step­ France, but what is most clearly French ping-stone to such complex and volu­ Dance about it is its preoccupation with mat­ minous material. Author, editor, and By Bill T. Jones and Susan Kuklin ters of the heart. American books for designer have outdone themselves. Photographs by Susan Kuklin children rarely show how intertwined Even the table of contents and index H YPERION romantic love and family life can be. have a clarity that is welcoming to 32 pages, Ages 8-12, $14.95 Ernest's family isn't the only one young adult readers. An annotated that matters. Victoria's, consisting of "Cast of Characters" list appears at It seems as if dancer/choreographer her parents and her thirteen the front of the book, and a helpful Bill T. Jones is everywhere these days brothers-"like an army," according chronology at the end. The text is set (and what a good thing that is!): to Ernest-is large in spirit as well as in a clear typeface with plenty of onstage with his company in evoca­ number. It's a noisy, affable crew, and space between lines. The book fea­ tive and thought-provoking dance it's impossible not to like them or tures dramatic illustrations on the dramas like Last Supper at Uncle Tom 's anyone else in this delightful book. front and back cover, abundant black­ Cabin, and recently, improvising in -Mary Lou Burket and-white reproductions of paintings his muscular style while his eighty­ and engravings, and an impressive year-old mother speaks a gospel bene­ center section of full-color reproduc­ diction to begin his new work, We Set Nonfiction tions of portraits of the queen, Out Early, Visibility \.\&s Poor. We see ~ arranged chronologically. him in television documentaries and As biographer, Thomas has a pas­ read about his life in his autobiogra­ Behind the Mask: sionate voice. She seems haunted by phy. Now we have the pleasure of The Life of Q!ieen Elizabeth I the specter of death in Elizabeth's life, sharing him with a young audience in By Jane Resh Thomas fascinated by the complexity of her a lovely new picture book especially relationships, and intrigued by both for children. CiJ.RJON 196 pages, Age 12 and up, $19.00 the ceremony and grittiness of Dance presents Jones in a familiar Elizabethan life. The passages on twen­ costume of everyday black belted Behind the Mask appears months after ty-year-old Elizabeth's imprisonment trousers and bare chest. The brown of an important new scholarly biography in the Tower of London, on the execu­ his shaved head, his molded arms of Elizabeth I for adults, Alison Weir's tion of Mary, ~een of Scots, and on and chest, his bare feet, stands out The Life ef Elizabeth I. These books share Elizabeth's last days are captivating against a stark white background. His a compelling subject. From a distance examples of narrative prose rich in his­ poses are not those of the ballet of more than 400 years, Elizabeth's torical detail. book, not the Prince in search of intelligence, her predicaments, her Thomas notes that brutal bear­ Sleeping Beauty or the Bluebird flut­ charm-and the complexities of her baiting fights and Shakespeare's dra­ tering his feet together in a series of life-exert a magnetism all their own. mas both took place "on the same jumps. These moments of caught Weir's biography, about 500 pages riverbank... a fitting example of the movement are idiosyncratic, sculp­ long, has an extensive bibliography, sixteenth century's temperament: an tural, eye-catchingly original assem­ including many primary sources. unnerving mix of physical vulgarity blages of bent knees, turned-in feet, Thomas's young adult biography, and cultural elegance. The English articulate hands. He jumps, he bal­ about 200 pages, credits secondary exaggerated these threads in the ances on one shoulder with legs in sources exclusively, acknowledging human sensibility, and they were the air, he squats like a frog and

32 Winter 1998/1999 smiles at the camera, he makes lines en" or "virgin"). Fearful of her power nunciation guide as well as an excel­ and curves. And the text does all of when she proved herself a visionary lent map and bibliography. the above. Sparse and direct, the leader, the English called her idola­ Josephine Poole has a knack for words introduce basic concepts about tress, heretic, or just plain witch. With weaving expressive details into her sto­ dance and convey a profundity about her capture in battle (she was a warrior, ries, details that communicate more its essence: "When I am dancing, I am too) she became a pawn strategically than we expect. (Somehow, knowing thinking, I am feeling. I am every­ forfeited by her own beloved King that Joan wore a red dress when she set where, and I am hardly there." Charles VII. In death she was called out to see the king adds to our sense No matter how true, it has martyr, later she was hailed as a savior. of her bravery.) In Angela Barrett, Ms. become something of a cliche to speak The most recently affixed label (from Poole has a collaborator gracefully of dance as a synthesis of body, mind, 1920) is Saint. tuned to the emotion in every part of and spirit. This text and these pho­ All these intriguing appellations her story. Barrett gives us dreamy tographs show us that truth. The joy of notwithstanding, writer/illustrator paintings (Joan wandering in a bee­ movement leaps off the page. The Diane Stanley and collaborators filled orchard) mixed with fiery ren­ human desire to dance leaps into the Josephine Poole and Angela Barrett derings of fifteenth-century war air with the sentence that opens and have each titled their recently pub­ machinery (exploding cannons aimed closes the book: "I want to dance." lished picture books simply Joan ofArc. at poor besieged Orleans). This is a That the dancer subject is male pro­ There is not an elucidating motes new perspectives for little boys subtitle to be found upon who could be drawn to the athleticism either book's cover, fron­ of dance, without the limiting societal tispiece, or dust jacket. And stereotypes about male dancers. That perhaps that is wise. The aus­ Jones is also African American opens a tere title holds a well-kept window onto the participation of promise that these two lovely black people in the abstract and con­ books will provide a calm and ceptual art of movement. Buy this thoughtful introduction to book to enjoy with children, and then the passionate and tragic story leave it open on your coffee table for of the Maid of Orleans. the enjoyment of adults. Prolific, popular, and -Mary Moore Easter award-winning, Diane Stanley (author of Leonardo da Vinci), Joan of Arc has with Joan ef Arc created another highly informative By Josephine Poole Illustrated by Angela Barrett and fulsomely illustrated biography. Her books are KNOPF manna for middle-grade read­ 32 pages, Ages 8-13, $18. 00 ers who dwell happily on Joan of Arc detail. In Joan of Arc each By Diane Stanley page of text is met with a full­ Illustration by Angela Barrett,.from Joan of Arc color illustration reminiscent W IWAM M ORROW 4 0 pages, Age 8 and up, $16. 00 of illuminated manuscripts of stylish book-the narrow, one-third medieval times, from young Joan page illustrations are completely Joan of Arc went by many names dur­ spinning (note the perfectly archaic arresting-that manages to convince ing her lifetime. Named Jeanette by spinning "wheel") to the cruel scene of us that Joan of Arc's short life, filled as her fifteenth-century French provincial Joan's religious recantation in the gild­ it was with hardship, brutality, and parents, she signed her name Jehanne. ed halls of Rouen. Stanley's writing is betrayal, was lived beautifully. When a legend of the realm prophe­ measured yet expansive. She leaves While both stories successfully initi­ sied that war-tom France would be nothing out of this tale of a girl who ate readers into an era when a "miracle" saved by a virgin, Jehanne began refer­ talked to angels and was burned as an could shape history, Stanley's version ring to herself as la Pucelle ("the maid- apostate, and includes a French pro- does so with a nod in its last chapter to

33 Riverbank Review the questions a young and/or sec­ involved decades of work, trial ular audience might ask: Did Joan and error, and many failed of Arc truly hear voices? Could it experiments. To create clear be that she was mentally ill? Is it images of snowflakes required possible she made up the conver­ using a tiny lens opening and a sations with angels? After weigh­ long exposure. He also used a ing every pertinent detail she can sharp knife to carefully cut muster from the decades sur­ away the dark parts of the nega­ rounding Joan of Arc's life, tive around each crystal. Stanley ends the biography by Word spread about Bentley's gently educating her audience photographs. Neighbors gath­ with these words: "Sometimes, ered on his lawn at night to in studying history, we have to view slide shows of magnified accept what we know and let the snow-flakes projected onto a rest remain a mystery." sheet on a clothesline. He In contrast, Poole's nar­ began to write articles, give rative-spare, elegant, every page speeches, and publish his pho­ suffused with emotion-brooks tographs in magazines. Uni­ no modern-day ambiguity. versities-as well as artists and "This," she informs us on the designers-bought lantern slide first page ofJoan efArc, "is a true copies of his snowflake pic­ story." Does she mean true in tures. When he was sixty-six, matters of faith as well as fact? Snow Crystals, a book of his Apparently, yes. Her story's last Illustration by Mary Azarian, from Snowflake Bentley photographs, was finally pub­ sentence (intriguingly juxta­ lished. Though it would become posed next to one of Barrett's most sidered a fool to be obsessed with an important scientific resource and a stunningly mysterious paintings), something "as common as dirt." popular photography book in the expresses a tranquil conviction that, Bentley was not to be dissuaded. decades to come, Bentley didn't live by example, invites readers to arrive at While his friends were building snow­ to see this happen. Soon after its pub­ their own: "A saint is like a star. A star forts, he stood still in the drifts, catch­ lication, he died of pneumonia, and a saint shine forever." ing snowflakes on a black cloth; then caught after a walk home in a bliz­ -Roz Ramstad Hawley he took the cloth inside and studied zard. the ice crystals under a microscope, try­ Jacqueline Briggs Martin tells the ing to draw the intricate shape of indi­ story of "Snowflake" Bentley with Snowflake Bentley vidual snowflakes before they melted. affection and grace. Mary Azarian's By Jacqueline Briggs Martin He discovered that this was nearly woodcut illustrations are warm and Illustrated by Mary Azarian impossible to do! He also discovered expressive, and her hand-rendered H OUGHTON MIFFLIN soften 32 pages, Ages 4-8, $16. 00 that no two snowflakes were alike. snowflakes both brighten and When Bentley was sixteen he each scene. (A photograph of Bentley As a boy, Wilson Bentley "loved snow read about a new camera that came leaning over his camera-and three of more than anything else in the equipped with a built-in microscope. his beautiful snowflake photographs­ world." In this picture book biogra­ Though Bentley's parents may not appear on the final page.) Readers will phy we see how Bentley's boyhood have understood why their son want­ be inspired by this story of a man who passion fueled his life's work: the ed to spend all his time "fussing with was both scientist and artist, who let study and photography of snowflakes. snow," they bought him the camera his deepest interests lead him through Born in 1865, he grew up at a time with their savings the next year. The life, who found beauty in something when the art of photography was new camera was "taller than a newborn others found common-and in the and exciting. But to most of his neigh­ calf, and cost as much as his father's process opened up a part of the world bors in Jericho, Vermont, snow was herd of ten cows." we otherwise might not know. neither of these things; he was con- Bentley's pioneering photography -Martha Davis Beck

34 Winter 1998/1999

Stolen Dreams: Dreams. "My fingers were sore and my money made me realize how hungry I Portraits of Working Children thumb often got injured by the knife." was. I had not eaten anything the By David L. Parker with Lee Engfer Throughout this book children are night before. I stood up. I put a piece and Robert Conrow allowed to speak in concise language of newspaper over my bleeding foot Photographs by David L. Parker about what it is like to work, to forev­ and walked to a shop on my toe. I LERNER er be kept from getting an education, bought a cup of tea for myself. I did 111 pages, Age 11 and up, $16.00 to know severe pain and hunger. not go to the medical shop because I Pramila, who lives in Kathmandu, felt the hunger more than the pain" Listen to Us: Nepal, recalls, "The sight of the In contrast, Listen to Us is told The World's Working Children By Jane Springer G ROUNDWOOD A New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of 1998 96 pages, Age II and up, $16. 95 My students come into Sheridan A Handful of Beans Middle School comparing clothing labels: Gap and Hilfiger, Nike and Six Fairy Tales Reebok. They want the latest fashion, Retold by Jeanne Steig • Pictures by William Steig yet know that some of their favorites are made by child workers. They won­ Rumpelstiltskin Beauty and the Beast Hansel and Gretel der what they can do in a world that seems to lack compassion and concern for children. At twelve and thirteen, they often feel powerless. Stolen Dreams and Listen to Us have given me a way to reach these young adoles­ cents. Each of these books can inspire them to act, make them think about where their own clothes, shoes, and Little Red Riding Hood The Frog Prince Jack and the Beanstalk CDs come from. Each book can help direct their energy toward solutions to the situation of child workers around the world. Few books that encourage activism are available for this age group. How welcome, both of these! Each book addresses similar top­ ics: bonded labor, children in armies, "What a book to turn kids on children working at home, in factories, to the power of story. . . . in sweatshops, and in the fields. They "It's the sense that fairy tales happen to people like us that will approach child labor historically as enthrall young children (and those who read to them) in .. . well as currently, recounting the rise this small volume [with] a decidedly down-to-earth tone. The of child labor and telling of the pres­ telling is rhythmic, colloquial, and direct, and the loose line­ ence of child workers today in many and-watercolor illustrations in Steig's cartoon-style bring the countries, including the United States. dwarves, giants, witches, and princesses right into the kitchen." Each book is graphic in its detail, -Starred review I ALA Booklist describing the deformities, injuries, neglect, and danger for children who '

Parker et al. While each book contains Peter immobile and confined him to heartbreaking images, the photographs bed, where he had the surreal experi­ in Stolen Dreams are works of art in ence of regaining consciousness to themselves, presenting children with find a "stranger" massaging feeling insight and originality. Parker's skill as back into his limbs while telling him a photographer comes through in the stories about a "jingle-bell boy," luminous clarity of the portraits of giants, and a magic lake. The stranger children in this book. was his father, and the fantastical yet Both books offer action plans, supposedly true stories are the inspira­ discussions of child activists living tion for Tibet: Through the Red Box, an and dead, and resources to contact intricate dance through Vladimir Sis's for more information. They offer Tibetan diary, his son's memory, and a ideas of ways we can work to end land that imprinted on both man and child labor, including legislation to boy in ways neither could completely change the situation worldwide. articulate or comprehend. If someone asked me to choose In the style of Buddhist mandalas, Photograph by David L. Parker,from Stolen just one of these books to use with my round symbols representing the sacred Dreams: Portraits of Working Children students, I would not be able to do it. order of the universe, Tibet: Through the Each has its strengths and each offers Red Box puts forth a complex, inter­ from a third-person point of view. Yet relevant information and images that connected narrative of events. Once it includes a crucial piece that Stolen the other does not. Together, they the red box containing the precious Dreams does not emphasize: the serve as important resources for diary is opened, Peter Sis the adult, sit­ unique situation of young girls in this young people. As a result of reading ting in his father's study reading the world of work. In Nepal, Springer these two fine books my students will yellowed pages, blurs with Peter Sis says, "Once she is married, a daugh­ be checking their labels, writing let­ the child. The light in the study fades ter leaves to live with her husband's ters, talking to their parents, and from red to green to blue to black family. She is considered to be of no becoming more knowledgeable about while Sis lets the diary transport him use to her own family any longer. In this crucial subject. back to how he felt as a young boy, fact, she is a burden. As a result girl -Julie Landsman hearing his father tell about his adven­ babies are fed less than boys and are tures over and over again. As usual, less likely to be taken to a health cen­ Sis's elaborately structured illustra­ Tibet: ter if they are sick. Girls start work tions, with their accumulation of spi­ Through the Red Box sooner, are made to work harder and dery lines and abundant delicate By Peter Sis are much less likely to go to school images, send the eyes circling each FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX than their brothers." The boys' stories 64 pages, Age JO and up, $25.00 page in a near futile attempt to take in Listen to Us are also powerful. A everything in. It's an exercise that young man from Mozambique, who Of all the subjects artist Peter Sis gives a sense of how overwhelmed was kidnapped when he was twelve, is has created books about-from Vladimir must have felt, wandering described by his younger brother: Columbus to Galileo, Komodo drag­ lost through the mountains, bouncing "Even back at home, Naftal was ons to baby whales-his own father is from one incredible encounter to frightened. I had to sleep with him at the most intriguing yet. Vladimir another. night." Naftal himself remembers, "I Sis, a documentary filmmaker, left And what to make of these kept dreaming that soldiers came to Czechoslovakia on military assign­ encounters? Can we believe Vladimir my house and were shooting. They ment to teach filmmaking in China in Sis was cared for by yetis (abominable were coming to collect me again." the mid-1950s, expecting to be back snowmen) after a snowstorm separated Partly because of its design, which home with his family in two months. him from his companions, or was this features sidebars, extensive time lines Months stretched into a year, Peter an illusion brought on by extreme and graphs, maps and charts, hazily recalls-a year without any cold and thin air? Did he really come Springer's book feels more fragmented news whatsoever from his father. A upon a lake full of fish with human than the more simple narrative of mysterious childhood illness rendered faces? In the end it doesn't really

36 matter. The Tibet housed within the TIMELY TITLES red box is "a Tibet I have never been FOR to, and it may be a Tibet that never YOUNG RIADIRS really existed," Peter Sis admits. But it is a Tibet with a powerful hold over one man and his family. This fixation is exemplified by the family pictures, drawn to resemble STARRING HILLARY photographs, that Sis intersperses by Kathy Caple throughout the book. In the spaces This warm and funny picture where his father should be, Sis shows book shows how Hillary, a a mere outline of a person. Perhaps, as likable, bespectacled cat, learns he ultimately suggests, his father never to overcome the familiar problems of self-esteem fully returned from his travels. and body image. Perhaps he is "still happy and young Ages 5-8, 1-57505-261-X, $1495 somewhere in Tibet." -Christine Heppermann

TorALLY UNCOOL by Janice Levy, illustrated by Chris Monroe With witty text and offbeat illustrations, this unique picture Carol of the Brown King: book brings to life the challenges Nativity Poems by Langston Hughes of adjusting to a single parent's Illustrated by Ashley Bryan new companion. Ages 5-8, 1-57505-306-3, $1595 ATHENEUM 32 pages, All ages, $16.00

Ashley Bryan continues his series of illustrated poems and songs from the HOPE by Isabell Monk, illustrated by literature of black culture in this col­ Janice Lee Parler orful rendering of five poems by A young girl learns about her Langston Hughes: "Shepherd's Song rich biracial heritage in this at Christmas," "On a Christmas heartening picture book about Night," "On a Pallet of Straw," "The faith and family. Ages 3-7, 1-57505-230-X, $15 95 Christmas Story," and the title poem. The book also contains a translation from the Spanish of an anonymous Puerto Rican verse. Of the visit of the three kings to '€_carolrhoda Books a division of The Lerner Publishing Group the manger, we generally know that 1251 Washington Avenue North one of them is black. Hughes recalls Minneapolis, MN 55401 this 800-328-4929 to us in rhythmic and rhymed www.lemerbooks.com verse: "Of the three Wise Men I Who followed the Star, I One was a brown king I From afar." Bryan adds to this diversity by giving us an Asian-look­ ing king and a red-bearded white king in addition to the brown king identi­ fied in the poem. What is furthermore unusual and striking about the book is Riverbank Review

its depiction of Mary, Joseph, and the another, making this a satisfying book Reviewers in This Issue baby Jesus as brown-skinned Africans. to share in one setting. Eight different This is entirely in keeping with sections gather poems neatly into Hughes's intentions. The author of groupings with titles like "Me" and is well known for "Secret Hiding Places." While many Christine Alfano is a member ofthe editorial Black Nativity, he committee ef the Riverbank Review and has his pursuit of a Christmas story told compendiums of poetry assume that written about children's books for the Hungry through black culture and custom. young children are prone to listen only Mind Review and other publications. Bryan dresses the sacred family in to silly verse, the poems in this book She lives with her family in Minneapolis. brilliantly patterned and colored meet the level eye of a child. Hopkins robes. Mary wears a gele (head wrap) says in his introduction, "I want young Martha Davis Beck is the editor ofthe with gold hoop earrings. In some children to hear, come to love, take to Riverbank Review. She lives in Minneapolis drawings she is adorned with cowrie heart poems about their own immedi­ with her husband and two sons. shells, a common decoration in West ate experiences." Here we have poems teeth and taking baths, Mary Lou Burket is a longtime reader African costume. Joseph is pictured in about brushing ofchildren's literature whose reviews have an embroidered toque. The baby climbing trees, and riding high on appeared in Publishers Weekly, The wears a silver bracelet on each wrist daddy's shoulders. Five Owls, and major newspapers. designed like those which Africans But these poems, like children, carried to the West Indies when they refuse to stay entirely grounded in Mary Moore Easter is a poet/writer, were transported as slaves. Many­ reality. The section entitled "Worlds dancer/choreographer, and professor ef dance pointed stars streaming light and of Make Believe" draws the reader's at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. halos big as rising suns add to the imagination with poems about fairies Her writing appears in the Hungry Mind Story Time!" contains Review, Sing Heavenly Muse!, book's energy. and elves. "It's and the current issue ofWater Stone. These visual conceptions of longer, fanciful poems that play with Hughes's poems allow a point of language and compel listeners with Roz Ramstad Hawley is a writer who entry for the reader to identify the otherworldly scenarios: the mythic lives and works in Florida. She and her Christmas story as one that belongs to grandeur of "The Jabberwocky" pro­ husband have three children. each of us in all our individual racial vides heightened drama; a quietly Christine Heppermann is a freelance writer origins. I find Carol of the Brown King moody dreamscape is evoked in and reviewer living in Minneapolis. A former a welcome addition to the bookshelf "Wynken, Blynken and Nod." bookseller, she writes a column on paperback of stories of the first Christmas, Hopkins nods to the simple and series fiction for the Hom Book Magazine. engaging for its inclusiveness and its familiar too, so that children will con­ expansion of our perspectives. fidently chime in on traditional Julie Landsman is the author of Basic -Mary Moore Easter rhymes like "Eentsy, Weentsy Spider" Needs: A Year With Street Kids in a or "This Little Piggy." Overall, a wide City School (Milkweed). She teaches at range of ideas and emotions is Sheridan School in Minneapolis, and Climb into My Lap: explored in these poems, well-support­ at Hamline University and the University Poems to Read Together ed by Kathryn Brown's expressive, sat­ of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins urated watercolor illustrations. From a Illustrated by Kathryn Brown Susan Marie Swanson is the author oftwo gaily comic sensibility to soft and SIMON & SCHUSTER books for children, Letter to the Lake and thoughtful introspection, the moods Getting Used to the Dark (both DK Ink). 79 pages, Ages 2-7, $19.95 displayed in her work are infectious. She reads and writes poems with children poems in her work as a visiting poet in schools. Climb into My Lap is an apt title for Wisely, Hopkins features this excellent new volume of poems about night and sleep in the final sec­ Margaret Willey is the author ef collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins­ tion of the book, "Good Night." Here many young adult novels, including the ones he's chosen extend just such words lull with quiet tones and images Facing the Music (Delacorte), which won an invitation. These are the kinds of of safe-keeping. The sweet and sleepy the Paterson Prize. Her first picture book, poems that are good to read in a soft exchange in Cynthia Pederson's "How Thanksgiving with Me, has just Come?" could only occur in the been published by HarperCollins. voice to young ones close by. Over fifty short poems are includ­ magic calm before sleep: "How come ed and they flow smoothly from one to I the moon I is big enough I to light

38 Winter 1998/1999 my room, I yet small enough I to hide and teasing-and it is about intimacy, behind I my thumb? I How come I shared memory, kindness, and loyalty. your smile I is small enough I to fit The poems illuminate each other. your face, I yet big enough I to light I The boy who chooses to help his sick the darkest place?" mother in a Gwendolyn Brooks poem i poetn for winter -Christine Alfano "would not let her see I He missed his game of baseball / Terribly." The child in a Judith Viorst poem is always beat­ Very Best (almost) Friends: en by a friend in running races: Poems of Friendship "There's awful things that I could do I Selected by Paul B. Janeczko To make me one and make Joe two. I Illustrated by Christine Davenier (But I won't even think of them)." C ANDLEWICK 37 pages, Ages 7-12, $12.99 Both of these characters-the stoical hero and the cranky loser-struggle Here is a beguiling book, comfortably inwardly. Finding them together in squarish (6 1/z by 7 112 inches), with this book, we can see more clearly the cream-colored paper, remarkable frustration of the would-be ball player illustrations done in watercolor and and the self-control of the runner who pen and ink, and twenty-four poems always comes in second place. by contemporary poets on the subject Christine Davenier's skill at illus­ of friendship. In his selection of trating poems paired in two-page poems, Paul Janeczko acknowledges spreads is a wonder, contributing to what every child knows but not every the unity of the whole. The line in her adult admits: friendship is not all artwork is delightfully agile. Pictures good times. of active, emotional children invite us christmas lights Voices range from the noisy to attend to the poems and to enjoy name-calling of Colin McNaughton's the movement from page to page. Bulbs strung along "Another Poem to Send to Your Worst In the affecting closing sequence, Our porch roof Enemy" ("Fathead, bumpkin, duffer, Janeczko offers "Friends," a warm Pour clear mutt, I Loopy, potty, monkey nut!") poem by Barbara Esbensen in which a to the lyrical prophecy of Nancy loyal friend chattily describes the pic­ Colors through the Willard's "The Marmalade Man ture she is drawing and declares, "I Cold black air; Makes a Dance to Mend Us" ("Lamb don't I need to draw our faces I We But our neighbors and tiger, walk together: I Dancing will never forget I each other." Next Have a spruce, like starts where fighting ends"). ~ry Best comes "A Trade" by Zaro Weil, a con­ (almost) Friends is cise poem about loyalty-"1'11 trade A huge shadow, about loneliness, you my colour for your story I I'll Full of deep blue insults, anger, trade you my story for your dance" - Mysterious stars. paired with "I Still Have Everything -Valerie Worth You Gave Me," a poem about lost intimacy by Naomi Shihab Nye From More Small Poems, that ends, "I do not ache. I I by Vakrie Worth. Copyright © 1976 by Valerie Worth . would not trade." Betsy Reprinted by permission of Hearne describes a friend's Farrar, Straus & Giroux, In c. voice "wild with roses and thorn," and Karla Kuskin gets the last word, "I think I could do anything at all, Illustration by Christine Davenier, I if you were there." from Very Best (almost) Friends -Susan Marie Swanson

39 Riverbank Review

1 one for the sbe\f

Each year when winter finally The River Bank We all get nervous when a great story arrives, we are dumbfounded. It pulls a and Other Stories from 1s abridged, but rest assured-Moore's shade down on our days and orders up The Wind in the Willows editing is sparse. She simplifies carefully, endless replenishments of cold. For By Kenneth Grahame paring down the flourish of Grahame's Illustrated by Inga Moore months on end the sky refuses to bright­ language and removing some of the CANDLEWICK, 1996 I hardcover: $19.99 stumbling blocks for younger listeners. en beyond its usual dull palette of gray. 96 PAGES, ALL AGES "Winter?" we say. "Already? Again?" The lush and numerous illustrations The best thing, the only thing, is to stay are the real point of this edi­ inside and read. tion. Moore's inkwork is remi­ Winter calls for a particu­ niscent of Ernest Shepard's lar kind of book, one that original drawings, but her does more than warm pictures bestow the story the heart. This season re­ with a new warmth quires a book that warms the and richness. She bases body-by welcoming a close her Mole and Rat on proximity of listeners. And Shepard's interpreta­ the story must be transport­ tion, softening their ing, so that you and yours are features a bit: Mole's no longer just a tumble nose is not quite so of bodies on a couch, but long and pointy; Rat's somewhere else entirely­ face has been rounded far from the chilly breeze slightly. But, best of all, that sneaks in through gaps every page turning prom­ in the window frames. ises a visual treasure, Illustrations are imperative: whether it be the ver­ roomy enough for young dant river, the twists and turns eyes to wander into, they of the path leading into the should radiate warmth and Wild Wood, a deep and detailed view inside detail, and invite a slow perusal. Badger's mysterious underground quarters, or a The perfect antidote to winter's frigid hold? The River panoramic view of the snowy English countryside- Moore Bank, Inga Moore's remarkable rendition of the first section makes winter look pretty! in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Moore works For those who finish this book before the chill of the a wonder with this children's classic: she's taken the stories season has passed, and are not quite ready to leave the that focus on the friendship between Mole and Rat and set couch, Candlewick has just published Inga Moore's follow­ them in a large and comfortable picture book that weighs in up volume: The Adventures ofMr. Toad. It's just as gorgeous at almost 100 beautiful pages. Generously stocked with ink­ as The River Bank, but it speaks in a different tone- these and-pastel illustrations, The River Bank looks and feels sub­ stories are rollicking and outrageous, Toad's actions all stantial in your hands, like an itinerary for a great adventure, fa rce. The illustrations are green and light, and they tug us which, of course, is what it is. toward the possibility of spring. -=-

40 The Beauty of the Beast Selected by Jack Prelutsky Illustrated by Meilo So KN OPF, 1997 hardcowr: S25 .00 YOUNGER / INTERMEDIATE Animals ofall sorts flit, swoop, tromp, and slither through poems ofall sorts, most by contemporary poets writingfor children. Vibrant watercolor illustrations add to the excitement.

Celebrate America Selected by Nora Panzer Artwork from the National Museum of American Art HYPERION, 1994 I hardcover: $18.95 INTERMEDIATE /OLDER America's varied landscapes, cultural legacies, seasonal rhythms-and the voices ofher people-are brought to compelling life in the work ofpoets and artists.

Classic Poems to Read Aloud Selected by James Berry Various illustrators KI NGFISHER, 1995 / hardan'

The Invisible Ladder Selected by Liz Rosenberg Photographs of the poets HENRY HOLT, 1996 I hardcover:$ 17.95 OLDER This fine introduction to contemporary American poetry presents forty poets: their poems, their statements about poetry and childhood, and engaging photographs of them as children and adults.

Mother Gave a Shout Selected by Susanna Steele and Morag Styles Illustrated by Jane Ray VOLCANO, 1991 /hardcover: Sl4.95 INTERMEDIATE These poems by women and girls are alive with rhythm and rich in cultural perspectives. Crisp pen-and-ink illustrations complement reflections 011 play, work, relationships, and the wide world. The Place My Words Are Looking For Selected by Paul Janeczko Photographs of the poets BRADB URY, 1990 I hardcOV

Talking Like the Rain Selected by X. J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy Illustrated by Jane Dyer LITTLE, BROWN, 1992 / hardr"1JCT: Sl9.95 YOUNGER A strong selection ef poems for young children appears in a generously sized volume featuring charming illus/ratiom and a ribbon bookmark. Talking to the Sun Selected by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell Artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art HENRY H OLT, 1985 I hardr"1JCT. $26.95 INTERMEDIATE/OLDER A treasure chest full ofart and poetry from many times and places, this book is a classic, notable for its vigor and accessibility as well as its variety.

Titls Same Sky Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye FOUR WINOS, 1992 papaback, SIMON & SCHUST>.R: $8.99 0 I DER Beginning with poems from Japan, Estonia, Sweden, Greece, and Bangladesh, tins volume presmts the voices ef I 29 contemporary poets from 68 rountnrs.

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS ANNOUNCES The Seventh Annual Hubbs Children's Literature Conference "~ Feast of Words: lntrodUeing Poetry ·.· ~ · to Children""

Saturday, February 27, 1999 O'Shaughnessy Educational Center St. Paul, Minnesota A conference for teachers, parents, librarians, storytellers, students, and anyone interested in encouraging the uses of quality children's literature in homes, schools, and communities.

WITH HUBBS LECTURER AND AUTHOR Karla Kuskin To receive a complete conference brochure, call (651) 962-5431.

Bulk Rate stf86MAs U.S. Postage c:;;;;:),. PAID 9'W RrvERBANK REVIEW University of St. Thomas ,, CHC-131 2115 Summit Avenue St. Paul MN 55105