Island Baby - Hardcover

Keller, Holly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688105793 ISBN 13: 9780688105792

Publisher: Greenwillow, 1992

Synopsis

Pops, a man who runs a bird hospital on an island, and his young helper Simon nurse an injured baby bird back to health

About this title

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- Simon helps his grandfather run a hospital for sick and wounded birds. One day, with Pops' help, he rescues a baby flamingo with a broken leg. He cares for his patient all summer until, reluctantly, he releases Baby in a salt marsh with other flamingos. Readers will see the parallel relationship between Simon and the adults in his life. They are about to let him go off to school just as he is setting his friend free in the wild. Simon is proud of his protegee's accomplishments even though he is sad to see him go. Keller's highly stylized paintings are lovelier than ever. The boy's face is depicted as a circle of one flat shade of brown topped with a black crescent of hair, two tiny squiggly lines for nose and mouth. But his eyes, in spite of the lack of detail, still show a dreamy contentment as parrots perch along his outstretched arms. Wide bands of bright colors decorated with rows of brilliant birds border text on the left and face full-page paintings filled with hot sun, cool shade, and skies of polarized blue. A beautifully oblique tale of passages, Keller's pictures and story are pleasing to both the eye and the heart. Simon is destined to become a favorite with children who are just beginning to loosen their family ties and to form new ones with the larger world. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Aglow with the brilliant colors of the Caribbean landscape, Keller's ( Goodbye, Max ; Horace ) watercolor paintings positively dazzle the eye. Her crisply defined, unadorned scenes portray the rich blue of the sky, the glimmering turquoise of the sea and the rainbow of shades found in various species of native birds. The story centers on an amiable boy who rescues a wounded baby flamingo and, with the help of a kindly older man who is a bird doctor, nurses it back to health. At summer's close, Simon reluctantly goes with Pops to set the healed flamingo free. Carrying a basket of laundry on her head, Simon's mother comforts him--and lets him know how proud she is of him--at the end of this gentle, reassuring tale. As an extra visual treat, Keller decorates the left-hand pages (those containing text) with borders featuring flamingos, gulls, pelicans and other vibrantly hued birds. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0688105793
• ISBN 13: 9780688105792
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1