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AN OLD SHELL

Name: AN OLD SHELL
Author: Tony Johnston
ISBN: 0-374-35648-3

POEMS OF THE GALÁPAGOS

by Tony Johnston ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 1999

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Spun from a 1995 visit, these 34 short poems are largely meditations on the wildlife of the Gal†pagos Islands and their past: after a long voyage, a rice rat arrives on a tangle of floating vines, a tall flamingo “drinks from its/cool green reflection,” a Sally Lightfoot crab comes “skibbling over the sand/in/delicate/dressage,” and Darwin’s ship, The Beagle, harbinger of so much destructive change, returns, ghostly, to bob like a shell in the offshore mist. Using a variety of verse forms and rhyme schemes, Johnston conveys her visions and observations in easy, everyday language; Pohrt’s drawings capture a sense of the locale’s isolation in depictions of a single creature clambering over flotsam, or small stretches of rocky coastline. This is a quiet, low-key celebration of a remote, endangered natural community. (Poetry. 8-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 1999

ISBN: 0-374-35648-3

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
BORN NAUGHTY
by Jin Wang with Tony Johnston ; illustrated by Anisi Baigude

- BOOK REVIEW
TREES
by Tony Johnston ; illustrated by Tiffany Bozic

- BOOK REVIEW
PUMA DREAMS
by Tony Johnston ; illustrated by Jim LaMarche

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A BIRD OR TWO

A STORY ABOUT HENRI MATISSE

by Bijou Le Tord ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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Less a story than an analysis of Matisse’s art, particularly after his move to Nice, this companion to A Blue Butterfly (1995), on Monet, also combines visual recasting of selected works with poetic commentary: “To his color palette he added the bluest sapphire blue he could imagine. And with it he painted the Mediterranean Sea.” Using a free style of brushwork that evokes Matisse’s own joy and energy, Le Tord alternates her versions of his art with scenes of the man himself, always nattily dressed, always industriously making art. This perceptive personal tribute will enhance readers’ appreciation for Matisse’s work; they won’t mind going elsewhere for biographical details, and reproductions of his actual paintings, sculpture, and collages. (Picture book. 8-11)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-8028-5184-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Eerdmans

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
SAINT FRANCIS SINGS TO BROTHER SUN
adapted by Karen Pandell & illustrated by Bijou Le Tord

- BOOK REVIEW
A BLUE BUTTERFLY
by Bijou Le Tord & illustrated by Bijou Le Tord

- BOOK REVIEW
PEACE ON EARTH
edited by Bijou Le Tord & illustrated by Bijou Le Tord

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HERE COMES MOTHER GOOSE

edited by Iona Opie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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This oversized companion to the much ballyhooed My Very First Mother Goose (1996) will take toddlers and ex-toddlers deeper into the playscapes of the language, to meet Old King Cole, Old Mother Hubbard, and Dusty Bill From Vinegar Hill; to caper about the mulberry bush, polka with My Aunt Jane, and dance by the light of the moon. Mixing occasional humans into her furred and feathered cast, Wells creates a series of visual scenarios featuring anywhere from one big figure, often dirty or mussed, to every single cat on the road to St. Ives (over a thousand). Opie cuts longer rhymes down to two or three verses, and essays a sly bit of social commentary by switching the answers to what little girls and boys are made of. Though Wells drops the ball with this last, legitimizing the boys’ presence in a kitchen by dressing them as chefs, in general the book is plainly the work of a match made in heaven, and merits as much popularity as its predecessor. (Folklore. 1-6)