The Star Counters - Hardcover

Luttrell, Ida

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688121497 ISBN 13: 9780688121495

Publisher: Tambourine, 1994

Synopsis

Believing that he owns the stars, a greedy king hires several animals to count them each night

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

After a fine opening premise, this story dissolves from a lack of focus. A greedy king, certain that he owns the stars, counts them each night to make sure none is stolen. Exhausted, he delegates the task, successively, to a turtle, a fox and, finally, a cow. Spying on the cow as she drinks from a pond, the king thinks she is swallowing the reflected stars. Maddened, he falls into the pond, is rescued by the cow and then runs after some shooting stars, never to be seen again. Loose ends unravel the narrative: "So Fox counted the stars when they came out that night"; but five lines later "he refused to count them," and in another four lines he tells the king how many he counted. Why does the cow's weight gain alarm the king? Why does she pause, five stars from the finish line, each night? Russian illustrator Pretro, in her American debut, contributes quirky, loose watercolors vaguely reminiscent of Chagall in their flatness and composition; a picture of the cow as she sits plucking a lute, clad in an Elizabethan-style dress with a veil supported by her horns, is particularly ripe. This evidence of wit, however, is not strong enough to redeem the muddled text. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A story that is not without interest, but that ultimately falls flat. Long ago, a greedy king thought he owned everything, including the stars, and he counted them each night to make sure none were stolen. When this task proves tedious, he goes in search of an official Star Counter of the Universe. The unsatisfactory appointees-turtle, fox, and cow-are given picturesque punishments. (The fox is locked up and fed a diet of boiled buzzard feathers.) The ending, however, is abrupt and somewhat thin. The king runs off to recover the falling stars and is never seen again. Pretro, in her first book published outside of Russia, creates pen-and-ink drawings that are sketchily washed with watercolor. Although her palette is mainly pastel, the pictures are bold and expressive. The king, with splashes of green and red highlighting his face, looks convincingly bad tempered. Larger collections, especially those with an interest in examples of illustration by international artists, may be interested in this title. For others, it is an adequate, but not necessary purchase.
Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tambourine
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0688121497
• ISBN 13: 9780688121495
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1
• Illustrator: Pretro Korinna