The Runaway - Softcover

Frost, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1567922430 ISBN 13: 9781567922431

Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2006

Synopsis

In one of Robert Frost's most appealing poems for children, this quintessential New England poet brings the reader to a rolling upland meadow just as autumn turns to winter and snow begins to fall. In this interpretation, a child and mother are out for a walk and are captivated by a young Morgan colt, bewildered and skittish, reacting to his his first encounter with falling snow.

With striking tableaus, bold shapes, and sumptuous colors, the artist Glenna Lang evokes the archetypal New England landscape crisscrossed with stone walls and inhabited by farm animals. Her winsome colt and sympathetic child will engage the young reader in this moving poem about caretaking and concern for young creatures.

Adults may see the poignancy and ambiguity of Frost's words, but children will embrace the resolution that the artist provides. This charming book shows the unknown situations are not always as frightening as at first they might appear, and that a comforting presence is never far away.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-In this successful picture-book adaptation of a Frost poem, a child watches a lone colt spooked by his first snowfall and comments, "Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,/When other creatures have gone to stall and bin,/Ought to be told to come and take him in." In an endnote on Frost, the poem is acknowledged as being a metaphor for "the impetuous spirit of youth." This metaphor is implied visually in Lang's illustrations. The bold, almost silhouetted figures of a girl and her dog watching the colt are rendered in matte colors with no or faint white outlining and evoke the cold, muted brightness of the early winter farm landscape. The artist frames the pictures so that the child's mother only occasionally appears at the periphery of the double-page spreads. The narrator seems to be the girl, who notices the colt's play and the fact that his mother isn't around, but who also plays in the snow unattended. Yet readers know that the child's mother is always at hand and, sure enough, Lang brings the mare to collect her young at the end. It is this visual layer to the text that makes this poem an appealing story for children. Lang makes her vision of this poem haunting enough to suggest new possibilities of interpretation as children grow up and mature.
Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

With a muted palette of pastel and earth tones, Lang's serene illustrations of a New England landscape give Frost's haunting, potentially disturbing poem a happy ending. Walking in a snowfall, a girl and a woman who appears to be her mother spy a skittish colt frightened by the weather. As the animal bolts across a field, the poem's unnamed voice asks, "Where is his mother? He can't be out alone." Frost's concluding words leave the young horse's fate uncertain: "Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,/ When other creatures have gone to stall and bin,/ Ought to be told to come and take him in." Lang, however, answers the rhetorical question by introducing a concerned mare in the distance that takes her place by the frightened colt's side. Lang's collage-style spreads with large blocks of color are tranquil renderings of a seemingly sedate colt and do not effectively allow readers to experience the strength of Frost's words (to hear "the miniature thunder where he fled," for example). The poet suggests a colt fearful of the heavy snowfall, yet the illustrations convey a perfect pattern of spare white polka dots. Although the artist's interpretation may quell her audience, the artwork divests the poem of its drama and urgency. All ages.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1567922430
• ISBN 13: 9781567922431
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Lang Glenna