The Boy Who Held Back the Sea (Picture Puffins) - Softcover

Lenny Hort; Thomas Locker; Mary Mapes Dodge

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140546138 ISBN 13: 9780140546132

Publisher: Puffin Books, 1993

Synopsis

From the award-winning and renowned illustrator Thomas Locker, beautiful oil-painted illustrations pair with this wonderful retelling of the traditional Dutch folktale. 

Jan had never done anything more heroic than shout for the guard because he’d imagined he’d seen a sea serpent. But when Jan discovered water trickling through a desolate stretch of the dike that protected his low-lying village, he knew he had to act fast.
 
“Visually stunning.”—Publishers Weekly

"Locker's depiction of nature overpowering humanity is especially significant to the story and to the Dutch people who have spent centuries battling the sea."--School Library Journal

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Locker was one of the major American painters of the past century. In a career that spanned almost 60 years, he had over 75 solo exhibitions. In 1982, he began work on his first children’s picture book, Where the River Begins. Mr. Locker’s exceptional paintings and illustrations grace the pages of some 30 different books, several of which he also wrote. These unique books have been honored with numerous awards, including the prestigious Christopher Award, the John Burroughs Award, and the New York Times Award for best illustration.
Lenny Hort is the author of several acclaimed books for children, including The Boy Who Held Back the Sea. Mr. Hort lives in New Jersey with his wife and their three daughters.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3 Grandmother tells Pieter, who has been sent to his room, the story of The Boy Who Held Back the Sea. Hort's adaptation of a story that appears in Mary Mapes Dodge's Hans Brinker is significantly longer with numerous changes and embellishments. More complex characters have been created, removing the story from the realm of fable and placing it into fiction. Jan is depicted as a troublemaker who tells tales about sea serpents to the dike's watchmen, plays hookey from church, and throws a rock through a school windowa complete opposite from the sunny-haired boy of gentle disposition who reads to a blind man in Hans Brinker. Both, however, become heroes when they observe a hole in the dike and plug it with a finger. Locker's arresting oil paintings, with their dramatic clouds, towering trees, and natural diffused lighting are suggestive of the 17th-Century Dutch landscape paintings made famous by Jacob van Ruisdael. The posed figures and the meticulously depicted objects in the opening and closing scenes are particularly reminiscent of Vermeer. Locker's depiction of nature overpowering humanity is especially significant to the story and to the Dutch people who have spent centuries battling the sea. Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public Lib .
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0140546138
• ISBN 13: 9780140546132
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32