Demi's Secret Garden - Hardcover

Demi

4.62

8 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805025537 ISBN 13: 9780805025538

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1993

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

A collection of poems by the author of The Empty Pot and thirty-nine other children's books features insects and other tiny creatures, depicted on a dramatic, grand scale.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3 Up-An eclectic collection of 17 short poems by Asian and European authors, Chinese nursery rhymes, a Sanskrit fable, and excerpts from Shakespeare and the Bible. The focus of the book, however, is clearly the stunning artwork. Seventeen common insects and two arachnids are depicted in whimsical, eye-catching drawings that employ a variety of mediums. Set against pastel backgrounds, they include colorful collages of flower-patterned and jewel-toned paper, as well as acrylic and gold-leaf paints. Portions of these stylized drawings are also covered with tiny pen-and-ink replicas of the animal subject in different poses. Eight of the illustrations are three-page spreads, made possible by fold-out flaps, and a lush drawing of a Birdwing Butterfly employs two flaps, expanding over four pages in all. However, while many of the selections are of excellent quality, the majority have little child appeal. The nursery rhymes are the best entries. "The Dragon," which also appears in Demi's previous anthology, Dragon Kites & Dragonflies (Harcourt, 1986), is refreshingly lighthearted. A two-page "Afterword" offers miscellaneous information about the animals included. Michael Rosen's amusing Itsy-Bitsy Beasties (Carolrhoda, 1992) is a better choice for young audiences, as is Richard Lewis's In a Spring Garden (Dial, 1989), which offers simple but effective haiku about some of the same small beasts. Demi's Secret Garden is a novelty book that will make a splendid gift for art students or adults with a taste for something different.
Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

An opulent novelty book, this collection of poems about insects will delight Demi fans with its gilded illustrations and ornate designs that virtually burst the confines of the page. As if there were not room enough on a single spread for the span of a mayfly's gossamer wings, five separate spreads fold out for a three- or four-page expanse. The flowers in Demi's "secret garden" are contained in the fanciful designs that adorn the bodies of the insects; each is magnified against a solid pastel background and outlined anatomically in fine black ink, but interior spaces fairly shimmer with collages of gold-embellished patterned papers, watercolor fantasies and filigreed forms. The spectacular birdwing butterfly, for example, stretches across four pages with its William Morris-like flowered black wings. The 20 verses--more easily accessible to adults than to children--include snippets from Whitman, Keats, Shelley, Blake and Shakespeare; Japanese and Chinese poets; and the Bible. An afterword supplies interesting facts about each of the insects represented. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.