Horace - Softcover

Keller, Holly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099911108 ISBN 13: 9780099911104

Publisher: Random House UK, 1993

Synopsis

Horace, a leopard, is the adopted son of tiger parents. Every night, at bedtime, Mama tells him how he came to be their child. But Horace always falls asleep before the story ends. As Horace grows older, he begins to wonder whether he belongs -- really belongs -- with his adopted family. He runs away. When Mama and Papa find him, Horace is glad. And that night, as he goes to sleep, he provides his very own ending to the story he has heard so often.

About this title

About the Author

Holly Keller, author-artist of That's Mine, Horace, has written more than twenty books and illustrated as many written by other people. Among the most popular of her picture books are two previous books about Horace, Horace and Brave Horace, and several books about the feisty pig Geraldine. She is the mother of two grown children and lives with her pediatrician husband in Connecticut.

In Her Own Words...

"Although I didn't realize that I was launching a wonderful career that would develop many years later, I wrote my first book for children when I was a senior at Hunter High School in New York City. Accepting the offer of my Latin teacher for me to do an extra translation to improve my grade, I produced a fully illustrated dummy of Little Red Riding Hood-in Latin, and set in the appropriate period of history. I also didn't know that it would be a long time before my artistic and intellectual interests would work together side by side quite so neatly again.

"I went to Sarah Lawrence College planning to study art, and ended up with a concentration in American history. I earned a Master's degree in history at Columbia University but never gave up my longing to draw and paint. Some years later I took a class in printmaking at Manhattanville College, and it was there that everything started to come together. I was working on a series of etchings illustrating a tale by Rudyard Kipling, and my very wise teacher, John Ross, suggested children's books.

"By then I was the mother of two small children and lived with my pediatrician husband in a rural town in Connecticut. I used whatever quiet hours I could find to put together a portfolio, and what little energy remained to take a course in illustration at the Parsons School of Design. I arrived at Greenwillow in 1981 with a pile of drawings for stories that existed somewhere in my head. Susan Hirschman pulled one out and told me to go home and write the story-in a week, no less! Well, somehow I did it, and the sense of unity I had felt back in Latin class was mine again.

"Since that first book, which was called Cromwell's Glasses, there have been many, many stories. Some come from my own childhood (frequently changed just enough to make them turn out more to my liking!), some come from the experiences of my children, and, more recently, some have come from the places to which I have traveled.

"In all the years that I have been writing and illustrating children's books, it has never felt like work. Each new book brings me to a place I have never been before, and I am always excited and happy to be there."

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-- An adoption fable that has attractive, simple drawings in pen and watercolor; humor; and a graceful incorporation of several complex themes. Leopard-spotted Horace has tiger-striped parents, and he experiences the normal feelings of adopted children who do not look like their parents. Once or twice he wishes for different parents, and he has trouble accepting his looks. He decides to find a family where he belongs, and runs off to the park. There Horace makes friends with a kind family who look just like him, and who invite him to come with them. He realizes he wants to return to his own home and his own parents. Adults should be prepared to explain the part of the story in which Horace is told that he "lost" his first family, a word open to interpretation by preschoolers. Most adoption stories for young children use photos or drawings in a documentary or didactic way. Keller's use of appealing animal characters in a fictional tale is a welcome approach. --Anna Biagioni Hart, Sherwood Regional Library, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0099911108
• ISBN 13: 9780099911104
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32