Pockets - Hardcover

Armstrong, Jennifer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517709260 ISBN 13: 9780517709269

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

The somber, hard-working people of an isolated town on the plains ply through life in the drabbest of gray clothes--until, in the linings of their pockets, they begin to discover lavishly embroidered pictures of far-away places, sewn there by a mysterious young woman who has recently arrived and taken up work as the town's seamstress. Exploring these stitched visions--of proud ships and sparkling oceans, of golden towers and distant cities, of buccaneers, sea serpents, and gold--the austere townspeople find themselves transformed. A husband and wife suddenly fall in love again, brightly colored flags appear on rooftops, houses are painted in azure and crimson, dances are held...

Pockets is Jennifer Armstrong's tale of people made new by their imaginations, and of the mysterious young seamstress who brings this about. Her luxurious storytelling is equaled by the rich palette and exuberance of Mary GrandPré's illustrations.  

About this title

About the Author

Ever since the first grade, Jennifer Armstrong knew that she would become an author. She loved making up stories and sharing them with others. Her family treasured books and this led her to become an avid reader of all types of fiction. It was no surprise when she chose to study English and American Literature at Smith College in Massachusetts.

Armstrong is the author of over 50 books for children from kindergarten through high school. Best known for writing historical fiction, she has also been successful in
creating picture books, easy readers, chapter books, young adult novels, as well as nonfiction.

Armstrong, who grew up outside of New York City, now lives in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Jennifer Armstrong is the winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. Many of her books have been designated as Notable Books by the American Library Association and the International Reading Association.

For more information on Jennifer Armstrong, visit her website at www.jennifer-armstrong.com, or read her blog at www.jennifer-armstrong.blogspot.com.
From the Hardcover Library Binding edition.

From Booklist

Ages 5^-8, older for reading alone. Armstrong and GrandPre top the stylishness of their Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat (1993) in this grand, lyrical tale of imagination's transformative power. The story is framed in nautical imagery and metaphor. When "a slim schooner of a woman, driven by strong winds and a broken heart," fetches up outside a prairie town, the industrious residents take her in as their tailor, on the condition that she make only practical, unornamented clothing. She agrees--but in subtle rebellion begins lining pockets with glorious embroidery of ships and fish, shells, and mementos of exotic ports of call. Soon the townsfolk are learning the names of stars, discussing poetry, dreaming of Constantinople, and, hands in pockets, scanning the far horizons. In GrandPre 's rolling, expressionistic painted scenes, the dusky purple light that falls on dreary buildings and shadowed faces is deepened and enriched by the golden visions that swirl about people's shoulders and fill the sky. In the end, heart healed, the mysterious woman sails off alone through seas of grass, having worked a profound change through hidden means. Like Armstrong's Dreams of Mairhe Mehan (1996), this picture book will need help to find its audience, but the quality of the writing, plus fine contrapuntal interplay between text and pictures, will make the effort well worthwhile. John Peters

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0517709260
• ISBN 13: 9780517709269
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32