The Old Lady and the Birds

Johnston, Tony

ISBN 10: 0152577696 ISBN 13: 9780152577698

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1994

Synopsis

An elderly woman sits under a pepper tree in her Mexican garden and enjoys a musical day in the sun, in a captivating, brightly illustrated story, by the author of Lorenzo the Naughty Parrot.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-3-A day spent with an elderly woman in her garden in Mexico. The brief text, which is diagrammed as poetry, incorporates Spanish words and phrases as she speaks to the birds or her cat. "The birds steal bits of colored ribbon/for their nests./'!Ladroncillos!' she says." The passage of time is evidenced by her meals-bolillos (soft bread rolls) for breakfast, tortillas for lunch, and by the movement of the sun and the moon in the sky. The cumulative effect is flat and will not hold readers' attention. The illustrations, one on each page facing the text, are photographs of three-dimensional collages. The old lady is a ceramic figure dressed in colorful cloth attire, and the birds resemble small stuffed specimens. Each scene is carefully decorated with dried flowers, leaves, and moss around the edges of the bright green frame. Flower pots and bits of bark and wood complete the scenes, which often include a bright yellow clay sun or a pale, greenish moon, both with human faces. The illustrations, though interesting in their combination of materials and visual references to the Mexican culture, do not extend or enrich the text. A book that is static and artificial.
Graciela Italiano, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Garcia's complex, mixed-media dioramas give considerable heft to Johnston's quiet tale about a Mexican woman enjoying the birds in her garden. The old lady delights in the ladroncillos that fly away with bits of tortilla or pieces of broom or ribbon they have "stolen" from her. A full and happy day consists of protecting her feathered friends from an eager and adventurous cat as they build nests and splash in the birdbath. Johnston's gentle, grandmotherly tone captures the joy to be found in appreciating simple pleasures. Spanish words, such as bolillos (rolls), and azucar (sugar), are unobstrusively woven into the story via the old lady's exclamations. Definitions for the foreign terms can be inferred from context clues and from the illustrations. In what occasionally recalls claymation-type sculpture, Garcia's bold three-dimensional pieces bring the kindly woman and the various winged creatures to life. Swatches of tree branches and dried leaves and flowers set an authentic scene; folk art motifs heighten the atmosphere. While not high on the excitement meter, this volume's bright and reassuring outlook holds plenty of appeal. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0152577696
• ISBN 13: 9780152577698
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Garcia Stephanie