Angel Hide and Seek - Hardcover

Turner, Ann Warren; Ehlert, Lois

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060270853 ISBN 13: 9780060270858

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1998

Synopsis

Exploration of the natural world reveals barn angels, a butterfly angel, a sea angel, and other marvelous creatures

About this title

About the Author

Ann Turner is the author of many novels, picture books, and poetry collections for young children. Her novel A Hunter Comes Home was an ALA Notable Children's Book of 1980, and her first picture book, Dakota Dugout, received the same honor in 1985. Among her other books are Rosemary's Witch, a School Library Journal Best Book of 1991 and Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies, a Reading Rainbow selection. Ms. Turner lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, with her husband Richard, and their two children, Benjamin and Charlotte.

In Her Own Words ...

I was one of those children who sniffed, slept on, and sometimes ate books. Once a week my father would go to the library and bring back seven books, one for each day of the week. I would open my mouth like a baby bird to devour food. I really think I would have died, had I not had books.

I wrote my first story when I was eight, about a dragon and a dwarf named Puckity. I still have it and use it when talking to children. The story shows that children have tales to tell, and ones worth telling. I was encouraged in my writing through school and college, but was afraid I could not do it. I trained as a teacher and taught for one year, but quickly decided that I would rather write books than teach them. I tried my hand at poetry for two years and had one poem published.

It wasn't until my mother, an artist, suggested that we do a book together about vultures that I tried writing for children. So my first book was about natural history, and I loved learning about vultures and watching them in Florida.

The queerest thing about writing is how a story chooses you, instead of you choosing it. I often feel as if I am walking along quietly, minding my own business, when a story creeps up behind me and taps me on the shoulder. "Tell me, show me, write me!" it whispers in my ear. And if I don't tell that story, it wakes me up in the morning, shakes me out of my favorite afternoon nap, and insists upon being told.

Writers write for the same reason readers read - to find out the end of the story. I never know the endings of my stories when I start out; I must wrestle my way through them, punching out unnecessary words, arguing with self-important paragraphs, until I arrive at the end thirsty, tired, but victorious. This tells you, of course, that writing is not easy for me. Once in a blue moon it is, but most of the time it is hard, hard work. And I work every day. I sit down at my computer and write. It could be about anything, or anyone - my husband, Rick, my children Ben and Charlotte, or the woods that surround our house in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.

Remember that you have stories to tell, too. Remember that you have a voice that is worth being heard. Write your stories down, keep journals. Learn to be a spy. I am a nosy, curious spy who eavesdrops on people at the beach, or as they stroll along at the mall. I always wonder; "Why is she walking so fast? Is she mad? How come his mouth looks like that? What is that lady saying to her child?" If you keep your eyes and ears open, you will see that you are surrounded by drama and astonishing things, even in the midst of everyday life. Notice it; write it down, and who knows, maybe someday you will be a writer, too.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Children are encouraged to look for angels in the natural world through brief, lyrical vignettes and glorious collage art. Some of the hidden pictures are fun and inventive, such as a sea angel made of shells. Others are more confusing, such as the butterfly angel (well, is it a butterfly or an angel? Literal-minded children will surely want to know). But eventually the game palls. It's hard to see anything in the collages of leaves or pile of vegetables except the vibrant colors and interesting shapes of the objects themselves. There is an occasional felicitous phrase ("...a patchwork stitched by the quick steps of blackbirds"), and an accompanying collage at times forms a wonderful juxtaposition of textures. However, on the whole, this book is less than the sum of its parts. What exactly is the point of an angel made of rocks on the ground? A trend has become a gimmick in this ethereal bit of fluff.
Patricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

All the world is a Rorschach test in this imagination-stretching look at nature. In a series of brief scenarios, Turner (Shaker Hearts) describes her sightings of various "angels" in the wild. From Wood Angels (made of "leaves and nuts/ and pinecone petals") to Milkweed Angels ("Wind teased black seeds out,/ each a tiny flier/ in the sky"), she encourages readers to see the delicate, the unexpected, the wondrous. In a superb complement, Ehlert's (Hands; Color Zoo) vibrant multimedia collages combine colors, shapes and textures to compose an intricate visual landscape that begs for exploration. Cool gray stones, fiery autumn leaves and skate-scraped pond ice are among the settings she poetically recreates. The jacket image of an enormous sunflower wearing a subtly discernible smile is particularly cheery. An artist's note at the end offers some facts about the various plants and elements that inspired the illustrations. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A fanciful conceit brought to fruition by Turner's poetic text and Ehlert's signature illustrations. Turner writes about the angels that may be found in the faces of sunflowers, or in the silvered pattern of wood on an old barn. Everyone has made snow angels, but what about hay angels? Both are here. Butterflies are angelic naturals in a sky ``blue as paint.'' The words are simple and limpidly clear as they trace angels through the seasons, accompanied by Ehlert's rich layers of paper collage. Her vegetables seem edible, her milkweed angels and cloud angels marvels of tactile artistry. Readers will search for an angel wing in the shape of fire or an angel face on a rain-wet stone. Occasionally the thin sans-serif typeface fades into the fabulous, full-page, full- bleed pages, but this is fine to read aloud and to pore over. An artist's pictorial note makes plainand fascinatingthe materials used. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 5^-7. Stubby, winged angels smile and peek out through Ehlert's painted paper collages, hiding within sunflowers, beach flotsam, milkweed fluff, dim shapes beneath a pond's surface, and, of course, clouds. Turner's short, simply phrased poems show readers how to look for them ("I find a pile / of leaves and nuts / and pinecone petals / scattered together--/ small faces / hiding in the wild wood"), and with each turn of the page, they hide a bit better, until only part of a wing's contour or a gleam of eyes give them away. Though a typeface that is all thin lines is not the best choice for text superimposed on variegated, brightly colored backgrounds, this inventive use of the angel fad shows off Ehlert's unique skill with closely observed form and color as it invites children to stretch their imaginations in a hunt for patterns beneath the natural world's surface. John Peters

Edition details

• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060270853
• ISBN 13: 9780060270858
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Ehlert Lois
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40