The Hollyhock Wall - Hardcover

Waddell, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1564029026 ISBN 13: 9781564029027

Publisher: Candlewick, 1999

Synopsis

When Mary, wishing for her own garden to play in, plants a miniature one and creates a tiny boy out of clay, she soon finds herself standing in the garden with her new playmate.

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1-When Mary, an apartment dweller, wishes for a garden to play in, her mother suggests that they make one in an old cooking pot. The resulting creation, depicted in Mavor's distinctive soft-sculpture artwork and creative stitching, is lush with flowers and trees, and bordered by a wall of painted hollyhocks. A matchstick bridge spans a sparkling blue-ribbon stream. Despite its beauty, Mary feels that something is missing. She fashions a clay figure whom she names Tom and peeks "over the hollyhock wall to see how the garden would look if it were a real garden, and big." Just then,"...somehow, some strange how, something strange happened...." Mary finds herself playing with Tom in the garden, until the boy climbs the hollyhock wall. The magical phrase appears a second time, and now Tom, having fallen out of the pot, is lifeless again, and Mary finds herself back in her room wondering if it was all a dream. The third time the phrase appears, Mary is visiting her granny and looks over a hollyhock wall into the garden next door. Tom is there to welcome her and the two children play. Here, the book abruptly ends. Readers are left to wonder about the source of the magic and whether Mary will have to stay in the garden. Or is it all a dream? The richly detailed illustrations may interest readers more than the story, which doesn't measure up to Waddell's well-loved earlier books.
Virginia Golodetz, Children's Literature New England, Burlington, VT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Real and imaginary elements overlap in a confusing mishmash in Waddell's (Good Job, Little Bear) tale of a girl who starts a garden in a cooking pot. When the seeds Mary plants sprout into tiny trees, she adds a piece of blue ribbon to serve as a stream and builds a bridge out of matchsticks, then paints flowers on the outside of the pot to create a "hollyhock wall." Next she shapes a clay figure whom she names Tom. That night, explains the author in overblown prose, "somehow, some strange how, something strange happened...."Athe first of several such refrains. Suddenly Mary finds herself within her lush garden, where Tom is now a living, breathing boy. The plot straddles reality and unreality as Tom returns to clay, then later becomes human once againAwith no apparent logicAand Mary comes and goes from the garden. Mavor's (The Way Home) inventive and fetching fabric-relief art provides a more compelling juxtaposition of the actual and the fanciful. Her intricate tableaux of appliqu?, embroidery and soft sculpture incorporate live flowers and greenery, miniature objects and pieces of lace and ribbon to create a startlingly convincing three-dimensional effect. Yet even the artwork fails to orient readers on this bewildering outing. Ages 4-8. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1564029026
• ISBN 13: 9781564029027
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Mavor Salley