Hello, Arctic! - Hardcover

Taylor, Theodore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152015779 ISBN 13: 9780152015770

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

The Arctic is more than ice and snow. As the seasons change and winter turns to spring, birds return, seals leap and splash, and polar bears are born. Childlike, rhythmic text invites us to greet the animals that come with the turn of seasons--Hello, birds! Hello, seals! Hello, cubs!--while gorgeous illustrations reveal the wondrous creatures and colors of this stirring northern land.
Theodore Taylor, the author of many bestselling novels for teens, combines talents with visionary artist Margaret Chodos-Irvine in an exhilarating celebration of the wonders of the Arctic.

About this title

About the Author

THEODORE TAYLOR is the author of many acclaimed books for young people, including The Cay, Timothy of the Cay, and, most recently, The Boy Who Could Fly Without a Motor. Hello, Arctic! is his first picture book. Mr. Taylor lives in Laguna Beach, California.

MARGARET CHODOS-IRVINE's vivid, innovative art has appeared on many book jackets and in several picture books, including Buzz and Apple Pie Fourth of July. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

From Publishers Weekly

In his picture book debut, Taylor (The Cay) marks the cycle of seasons in one of the world's most remote locations. "Arctic winter is cold, so cold./ The northern lights flicker across the dark sky./ But now Arctic summer is coming!" Taylor begins. Chodos-Irvine's (Apple Pie Fourth of July) otherworldly prints, rendered from a variety of techniques, provide a breathtaking accompaniment. Her compositions seem as straightforward as Taylor's language, but her subtle layering of colors and shapes invites the eye to linger. In the opening spread, for instance, a lone wolf stands on the frozen tundra, gazing toward a low moon. The artist represents the landscape via an amalgam of rough-woven lines of white and ivories infiltrated by irregular, overlaid fields of beiges, blues and violets; the ground looms large and vast below the narrow slice of sky. As the temperature warms, Taylor issues a welcoming chant to the birds and flowers, while the palette brightens. A serene flock of birds undulates across the sky, its curve contrasting gently with the rolling edge of the blossoming shoreline below. Subsequent spreads dip below the surface of the ocean to reveal seals, walrus and whales. As the days grow shorter, text and illustrations circle back to the beginning. The birds fly south against a striated sunset; a polar bear and her cubs, their forms delineated chiefly by finely etched negative space, curl up in a golden heap, encircled by variegated layers of snow and ice. Immediately accessible yet meditative, the art will grip audiences on many levels. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0152015779
• ISBN 13: 9780152015770
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Chodos-Irvine Margaret