Leonora O'Grady - Hardcover

Komaiko, Leah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060217669 ISBN 13: 9780060217662

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992

Synopsis

The eccentric old lady Leonora O'Grady enjoys collecting a wild assortment of goods, from spaghetti jump ropes and a bottle of ants to a necklace of acorns and the queen's underpants.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 1-- A disappointing nonsense rhyme about a tatty eccentric who wanders through town with a shopping cart and six shopping bags filled with a quirky collection of oddities (e.g. spaghetti jump ropes, the queen's underpants). On her daily trek, she makes a stop at the museum steps, feeds cornbread to the crows, and ends the day with a merry tango with a park statue come to life and then falls asleep on a park bench. In scratchy, energetic watercolor washes, the illustrations suit the offbeat mood of the rhyming text. The verse often sacrifices rhythm for rhyme. In many, but not all, instances the rhymes are carried over onto anoth er page, which will be a disadvantage to new readers. This lacks the inherent child appeal and freshness of Annie Bananie (HarperCollins, 1987) by the same team. There is no dramatic event to give the story shape. Children will be confused by Leonora, who has the appearance of a street person, but seems to have a home, despite the fact that she sleeps on a park bench. --Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

This fourth collaboration between Komaiko and Cornell ( Annie Bananie ; Earl's Too Cool for Me ) celebrates an old woman's childlike knack for discovering treasures among the world's refuse--real and imaginary. Leonora's collection, which tumbles from a cart she wheels around town, contains such finds as "A whistling alarm clock / A snoring teakettle / An ostrich's knee socks / One bulldozer pedal." Who needs to visit an art museum, a young admirer asks, when Leonora has assembled such a visual feast for all to share? The energetic, undulating line and springlike palette of Cornell's watercolors infuse Leonora and her cache with an exuberance ideally suited to Komaiko's buoyant verse. This protagonist's bag-lady appearance and fondness for sleeping overnight in the park near her home may raise eyebrows; some may feel it romanticizes poverty while others will accept it as a wishful depiction of a world more amenable to spontaneity and tolerant of individual differences. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0060217669
• ISBN 13: 9780060217662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Cornell Laura