Letter to the Lake

A colorful picture book contrasts Rosie's warm-toned summer memories at the lake with her present cool, winter wonderland, and the connection between the two worlds is a house-shaped stone that she brought home last summer from the lake.

Kindergarten-Grade 1AIn the middle of a cold and snowy winter, Rosie composes an imaginary letter to the lake where she spends summer vacations. She carries a rock that reminds her of her time there, and the paintings envision similar touchstonesAa small school of fish floating on the ceiling of Rosie's room, a patch of water weeds visible in the kitchen, etc. Words and images alternate seamlessly between the carefree summer remembrances and the grimmer winter realitiesAa harried-looking mother fretting over her checkbook and a car that won't start. All morning, the child carries her rock, but once she and her mother have gotten the car started, she slips the rock into her mother's pocket, hoping that it will cheer her. Rosie's powerful imagination helps her through the dreary day, and her point of view is consistently conveyed through both the text and the artwork Nearly black-and-white illustrations (with the briefest touch of summer superimposed on them) indicate a sober, winter-clothed child and her mother, interspersed with full-color pictures representing the lake in summer. One stunning full-page spread combines the two in an image of Rosie shedding her winter clothes in the same manner geese take flight as she rows past them on the lake. An excellent book for reading to one or more children who will enjoy picking out the seasonal differences in the art and will identify with the yearning for the uncomplicated times of summer.ATana Elias, Meadowridge Branch Library, Madison, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Despite Catalanotto's (Dylan's Day Out) exquisite paintings, this exploration of a child's winter memories of her summer at the lake seems too self-consciously contrived to be compelling. "Dear Lake," writes Rosie, "When I think of you, I think of rocks hiding under the waves, like secrets. Remember me, your friend Rosie?" Catalanotto intersperses visibly frigid black-and-white illustrations of Rosie and her mother in winter with full-color paintings of Rosie's memories of warm days at the lake. Occasionally, the two worlds overlap in the girl's imagination: a black-and-white painting of the kitchen table shows a glimpse of Rosie's face in the reflection of the toaster, alongside a tray that contains just a hint of the lake's blue and purple landscape. Rosie's random reminiscences are sometimes poetic ("Our windows rattle, trying to get warm" or "I want to row all the way to summer, where you float the water lilies,...") and other times less involving ("I'm having toast for breakfast, with lots of raspberry jam. The kitchen window is covered over with frost. I keep some rocks from last summer on the windowsill"), but Swanson's (Getting Used to the Dark) epistolary style sounds too adult in tone to be convincing. On the other hand, the inventive perspectives and splashes of color in Catalanotto's impressionistic watercolors visually capture the complicated relationship between one's memory and experience. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the team behind Getting Used to the Dark (1997), a picture book that contrasts the drudgery of a wintry here and now with sparkling, ever-green scenes of summer at the lake. It is early in the morning, dark and bitterly cold; Rosie's mom is distracted, the car won't start, and Rosie would rather be somewhere else--namely, the lake where she spends her summer days. As she gets up, helps jump-start the car, and motors off in the cruel crystal light of a sub-zero dawn, Rosie writes a letter in her mind to the lake. ``I keep thinking about you, Lake . . . Remember me? Remember me floating in a silver boat . . . I want to row all the way to summer, where you float the water lilies, and the loons, and the whole bright sky.'' A pall hangs over the book--a disproportionate sense of sobriety: a weariness in Rosie's mother's eyes, resolute cheer from the neighbor who helps start the car, and a feeling everywhere that this is not the happiest of moments in their lives. It remains untapped, for Swanson only hints that something deeper is going on. The artwork is lovely, and not quite absolute: Winter is dour and dark, but its shadows and reflections are tinged with joyous summer images. If all love letters are made poignant by the sorrows of separation, this one rings true; the picture-book set, however, may find it too unsettling to appreciate. (Picture book. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.