Magic Words - Hardcover

Field, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152014985 ISBN 13: 9780152014988

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

Mystical creation poems explore the ancient Far North, a place where people can become anything they imagine, weather is born of a child's imagination, and rainbows mark the beginning of a new frontier.

About this title

About the Author

Stefano Vitale is an internationally acclaimed artist and illustrator. Originally from Padua, Italy, he lived in the U.S. for many years before returning to Italy with his wife and children. He now lives in Venice and commutes in a colorful wooden boat. Visit him online at stefanovitale.com
 

Reviews

Grade 5-9-This collection of narrative free verse was inspired by Knud Rasmussen's retellings of Inuit creation myths and songs. The language is simple, yet has a rhythm to it that makes for both good poetry and good storytelling. Unfortunately, Field does not include any description of how he has adapted these stories, noting only that the poems are "based on" Rasmussen's accounts. While he includes a page of notes about Rasmussen, there is little information about the Netsilik Inuit, and there is no bibliography. The poems were originally developed for a social science curriculum, which may account for the lack of context. Vitale's double-page collage illustrations are composed of images from each story, vibrantly painted on wood, bark, and/or rocks and set against a background of snow. With its stunning art and captivating language, this book may have a place in large or special-interest collections. However, with two excellent collections of Inuit tales published last year-John Bierhorst's The Dancing Fox (Morrow) and Howard Norman's The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese (Harcourt)-most libraries can do without this one.
Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Inspired by the journals of the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen, who lived among the Inuit and collected their stories, poet Field (Frieze for a Temple of Love) and Vitale (Nursery Tales Around the World) produce a stunning picture book. Suggestive, compact poems retell Inuit creation legends, conveying their power as much through what they omit as through what they declare: "This land of ours/ has become habitable/ because we came here/ and learned to hunt..../ But we know our land is not the whole world," states Field in the opening poem. However elegant the language, it is the illustrations that constitute a tour de force. Vitale expands on his signature oil-on-wood paintings to create collages of powerful beauty. Placed in harmonious arrangements against a snow-like, textured background, various stones, bark and wood are painted in a style reminiscent of Inuit prints and masks, but ultimately resonate with the artist's unique vision and feel for his materials. An original approach?in both poetry and composition?from start to finish. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Drawing from Knud Rasmussen's writings of the Inuit people and their legends, Field primal, earthy images in exceptional poetry. ``I hope that the reader can imagine real people speakingin this case the Inuit, in all their history and humanity,'' he writes in an introductory note. His hope is realized in the powerful and simple legends he presents of the Inuit and their world. The verses about the creation of day, night, sun, moon, stars, thunder, lightning, heaven, earth, and hell resound with wonder, vengeance, and bravery, offering a keen sense of the people. Vitale's illustrations are a perfect accompaniment, fittingly of the earth in renderings on bark, wood, and stone. Rough shapes and textures combine with the brilliant, primitive paintings that are in sharp contrast to the background that conjures icy terrain. The title is just as fitting; readers will marvel at the magic of the words and images in this thoughtful fusion of culture, poetry, and art. (Picture book. 4-9) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 3^-5, younger for reading aloud. Field has written a suite of poems based on the songs and stories of the Netsilik Inuit, collected in the first quarter of this century by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen in his travels above the Arctic Circle. Field must have lived inside those tales, because the poems on these pages ring both inevitable and mysterious: Of the earth, we learn "Children once grew / out of the ground / just as flowers do" and that thunder and lightning come from two abandoned siblings. We know about animals from a wise man who knew the trick of being a musk ox: "How warm it was in the middle of the big lowing herds / huddled together." A bear tale with echoes of both Goldilocks and Jonah has a wise one being swallowed whole and carving a door in the bear's belly: "That's the way it goes: Monster one minute, food the next." Vitale's illustrations are fabulous in the most root sense of the word. He paints in oils on bark, on wood, on stones, often set on snowlike backgrounds. He has clearly absorbed much of Inuit art's vocabulary, but there are also echoes of Japanese masks, Northwest coast iconography, and even Picasso. His passionate achievement, however, forges those influences into an art that both supports and reflects the perfect simplicity of the text. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

Edition details

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152014985
• ISBN 13: 9780152014988
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Vitale Stefano
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32