One Leaf Rides the Wind - Hardcover

Celeste Davidson Mannis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670035254 ISBN 13: 9780670035250

Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 2002

Synopsis

Introduces haiku through a collection of ten simple poems while exploring the diversity and beauty of a Japanese garden as one leaf, three miniature bonsai trees, and other plants and garden treasures are presented.

About this title

About the Author

A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Susan Kathleen Hartung is the acclaimed illustrator of the award-winning Dear Juno, as well as beloved favorites���One Dark Night and A Mom for Umande.

When not in her studio, Susan can be found renovating her 140-year-old farmhouse, or spending time with family and friends in her nearby hometown of Ann Arbor. Susan lives in Brooklyn, Michigan with her two dogs, Bongo and Audie, and her cat, Gomez.

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Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 2-This counting book, which follows a Japanese girl as she explores a traditional garden, offers an introduction to haiku and aspects of Japanese culture. The child finds one leaf, two carved dogs flanking the entrance to a temple, three pots of bonsai trees, four startled birds, five tiers on the roof on a pagoda, six sandals outside the teahouse, seven sweet cakes, eight lotus blossoms, nine koi fish, and ten stone lanterns. A double-page panoramic view of the garden at the end allows readers to find and count the objects again. Three lines of haiku are used for each number. Accompanying each poem is a brief paragraph explaining, for example, why a pagoda has five roofs or describing an aspect of the tea ceremony. The book as a whole is elegantly and respectfully presented and the counting aspect is especially well crafted, capturing the meandering focus of a small child. Mannis's simple verses are complemented by Hartung's pleasing and evocative pen-and-ink and watercolor art.
Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A Japanese girl in a rust-colored kimono tours a temple garden and counts its fixtures one to 10, accompanied by newcomer Mannis's haiku poetry. The book's elegantly spare design fits its Zen-influenced theme: a watercolor on the left, framed in a white border, faces a haiku on the right. The girl reaches for a drifting maple leaf in the first spread ("One leaf rides the wind./ Quick as I am, it's quicker!/ Just beyond my grasp") and Hartung (Dear Juno) places her squarely at the garden's entrance. As she admires bonsai ("a miniature forest"), views a pagoda (with its "five roofs [that] stretch to heaven") and drinks tea in a teahouse, the artist fills in details that trace her pathway before the girl lies down beside a lotus-covered pond: "What do flowers dream?/ Adrift on eight pond pillows,/ pink-cheeked blossoms rest." Notes in smaller type below offer more information (lotus blossoms "represent purity and mirror the soul's ability to reach beyond muddy waters to the sunlight of a better existence"). Little birds and a saucy cat accompany the girl through gently tinted, sweetly stylized paintings. The last spread shows the entire garden, revealing the girl's progression through it. Mannis's haiku act as both a guide to some of the elements of traditional Japanese culture and a useful introduction to the haiku form. Hartung's watercolors combine areas of finer draftsmanship with simple washes; in the artist's hands, the landscape becomes a series of meditative images. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Juvenile
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670035254
• ISBN 13: 9780670035250
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Susan Kathleen Hartung
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32