Running the Road to ABC

Six Haitian children awaken before dawn each morning to run barefoot to school, a journey that is complemented by the sounds of nature and the bright morning sun, in a rhythmic ABC story that captures the nation's hill and meadow regions.

Grade 1-5?The joy of learning shines through in this lyrical, freewheeling tale of a group of Haitian children on their way to school. Leaving at dawn, these barefoot students race through the countryside and town to their school to learn to read and write another letter, sound, word, line, and page in the "great and beautiful books on the Road to ABC." The text flows along with the youngsters, evoking the sounds of the early morning and the shapes of the varied terrain over which they travel. Details of the town with its bread sellers and horse tamers provide another memorable backdrop to the children's passage. This rhythmic, richly descriptive account of a "day in the life" of these young Haitians takes readers into this activity as they follow along. With their vibrant Caribbean colors of turquoise, greens, pinks and oranges, the full- and double-page illustrations are perfectly attuned to the text. Ruffins's folk-art style, including the details of flora and fauna and folks, is a feast for the eyes. The slanting hills and varied perspectives create a sense of movement that keep readers' eyes following the contours of the landscape. An inspirational celebration of reading and the desire to learn.?Carol Schene, Taunton Public Schools, MA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A poetic text charts the experiences of six children as they run through the Haitian countryside (``six days each week, forty weeks each year, for seven years of their short lives'') on their way to and from school. Lauture (Father and Son, 1993, etc.) pens a lyric evocation of childhood--or even national--struggle lightened by innocence and leavened by the beauty of the natural world, but it retains a strongly adult sensibility: ``On the roads of white turf and roads of red clay they run. On roads of rocks and roads of mud they run. If they take a wrong step they do not complain.'' The writing often soars (the children ``gaze at the heavens, rise before the sun, sail with the moon, and dream of stars to read and write") but many young readers may not sit still for it. Ruffins's bright gouache paintings are appealing; they summon the vitality of Haitian primitive art and are similarly detailed, image-rich and jewel-toned. A book that's worthy, but wanting. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.