The Earth and I - Hardcover

Asch, Frank

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152004432 ISBN 13: 9780152004439

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1994

Synopsis

Inspired by hundreds of letters from schoolchildren, this full-color, environmental picture book tells of the friendship one boy feels for Earth--and what he does to make his sad friend happy.

About this title

About the Author

FRANK ASCH has written and illustrated more than sixty books for children, including the popular Good Night, Baby Bear. He lives in Vermont.

Reviews

In this bland consciousness-raiser, Asch (Hands Around Lincoln, p. 63, etc.) casts the relationship between a boy and nature as friendship. ``The Earth and I are friends. Sometimes we go for long walks together.'' Each drop of rain, each fingernail on the boy's hand, each brick of his house is rendered in a ripple of rainbow hues, giving Asch's simple shapes and usually spacious compositions a crowded, overworked look. The ``friendship'' is portrayed largely in figurative, generalized, or symbolic ways. To ``tell her what's on my mind,'' the lad stands on a tortoise whose shell markings suggest a world map; later, coming upon a littered, polluted stream (``When she's sad, I'm sad''), he carries the trash away (to where?) and plants a flower. In the last scene, he hugs a tree. Worthy insight perhaps, but so painfully earnest that readers are unlikely to feel more than a superficial, temporary response. (Fiction/Picture book. 4-6) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

PreSchool-Grade 1-A simple story in which a boy describes his interactions with his special "friend," the Earth. ("I tell her what's on my mind. She listens to every word.") Asch's paintings show the child in close harmony with nature as he rides the back of a tortoise, plants vegetables, sings with the birds, and dances in the wind. Pollution mars their play towards the end ("When she's sad, I'm sad"), but he cleans up the garbage, plants a new flower, and hugs a tree on the final page. Despite the rainbow tones woven into each illustration, the muted pictures are blandly drawn and have little personality. They are in keeping with the universality of the author's message, but make for a rather unexciting picture book. The basic ecological theme is delivered in a straightforward manner; the book could be used to introduce nature units and is well suited to beginning readers. Nancy Carlstrom's Northern Lullaby (Philomel, 1992), Doug Florian's Nature Walk (1989), and Charlotte Zolotow's Say It! (1980, both Greenwillow) address the subject with more charm and imagination, but The Earth and I will reach even younger audiences.
Steven Engelfried, West Lynn Library, OR
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"The Earth and I are friends," begins this sentimental picture book in which a boy inventories the many ways he and the planet benefit and enjoy each other. Examples both obvious ("I help her to grow. She helps me to grow" accompanies pictures of the boy tilling soil, then eating food) and inspired ("I dance for her. She dances for me" is paired with the boy raking leaves, then the leaves being blown about by a gust of wind) give way to the book's ultimate "green" message: "When she's sad, I'm sad" captions a view of a scrap heap. The simple text is consistent with Asch's repertoire of very young picture books (Happy Birthday, Moon; Bear Shadow), but it lacks the humor that have made the others preschool classics. He paints a dreamscape of liquidy watercolors, with blues, purples, greens and reds bleeding together in a wash of rainbows that cover both the boy and the earth: hair, clothes, leaves, clouds are each multicolored. Jaded adults may have to stifle a laugh at the final, feel-good illustration, which features the narrator hugging a tree. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4-6. A young boy celebrates his friend, the earth. Like other friends, they do things together: go for long walks, talk together, sing and dance, and, of course, play. The child helps the earth grow, and through its bounty it helps the boy grow. And when the earth is sad, encumbered by pollution, the child feels its pain. The relationship of the earth to its inhabitants has been done before, but this appealing story gets right to the heart of a child's experience with nature. Young readers will especially be drawn to the simply drawn shapes executed in rainbow-colored watercolor washes; the watercolors bleed into one another, making all sorts of gorgeous hues. A delightful package that can lead to discussion among the preschool set. Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152004432
• ISBN 13: 9780152004439
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32