Joan of Arc - Softcover

Michael Morpurgo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340732210 ISBN 13: 9780340732212

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books, 2000

Synopsis

On learning she is to move to Orleans, the scene of Joan of Arc's greatest triumph, Eloise is delighted. One day she hears a voice, just as Joan had done years before, and the voice tells her the story of Joan of Arc as it really happened.

About this title

About the Author:

MICHAEL FOREMAN is one of the world's leading illustrators of children's books and the winner of several major awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal. His work ranges from picture books to fairy tales and original children's fiction. He is the illustrator of many Harcourt books, including Michael Foreman's Mother Goose, Joan of Arc, and Arthur, High King of Britain. He divides his time between London and St. Ives, England, his childhood home.

From Publishers Weekly:

Following their Robin of Sherwood and Arthur, High King of Britain, Morpurgo and Foreman turn their talents to historical fiction about the Maid of Orl?ans. Morpurgo frames his chronicle of Joan of Arc within a contemporary story about Eloise, a 17-year-old French girl who has set her heart on playing Joan in the annual tableaux in Orl?ans, where Eloise's family has just moved. When Eloise narrowly loses a contest to portray Joan, she seeks the solace of the sparrow she has befriended down by the river. There a voice from on high ("from deep inside the light, deep inside the silence") tells her the complete story of Joan of Arc, including Joan's lifelong companionship with a white sparrow ("He was her best friend on this earth"). Told in smooth, expansive chapters, the narrative skirts some of the more searching questions about Joan's voices and vocation (such as those raised in Diane Stanley's recent picture-book biography, Joan of Arc) and accepts Joan's religious visions at face value. Indeed, with the introductions of a supernatural narrator and of a sparrow that enjoys an almost mystical relationship with Joan, Morpurgo signals that his storytelling is premised on faith. Foreman, too, adopts only the look of realism. His deceptively sunny palette offsets the often brutal matter of the narrative, and his familiar, informal, representational style balances his allusions to religious imagery. If the work is not as provocative as Stanley's, its polish and panoramic scope will lure and hold readers. Ages 9-14. (Mar.) contemporary story set in Devon and focusing on a storytelling grandfather and his grandson (Pavilion [Trafalgar, dist.], $16.95 paper 80p ages 7-10 ISBN 1-86205-192-5; Mar.).
-, $16.95 paper 80p ages 7-10 ISBN 1-86205-192-5; Mar.).
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0340732210
• ISBN 13: 9780340732212
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128
• Illustrator: Michael Foreman