The Sleeping Bread

Czernecki, Stefan,Rhodes, Timothy

ISBN 10: 1562822071 / ISBN 13: 9781562822071

Published by Hyperion, 1992

About this Item

This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear . It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket. This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear . It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket.

Seller Inventory # mon0003387309

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Sleeping Bread
• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1562822071
• ISBN 13: 9781562822071
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Acceptable

About this title

Synopsis

Banished from town, Zafiro the beggar bids a tearful farewell to Beto, the baker, but when his tear falls into the baking water, Beto's bread will not rise

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-2-- Beto the baker is the only person in San Pedro who treats the beggar Zafiro with kindness, saving the old man scraps of bread. The townspeople are not so generous, and they drive him away. As he says goodbye to Beto, a single bitter tear falls into the water jar and the next day the bread fails to rise. The people try to wake the sleeping bread, but to no avail. Beto brings Zafiro back and the two solve the problem. Czernecki's paintings bring the vibrancy of traditional Guatemalan weavings to the page. The rich, deep reds and blues of the garments are set off by landscapes in greens and yellows that mimic the stripes and geometric figures of the clothing. The folk-art style is continued on the borders and in the depiction of a fiesta. The story gives children who are exposed to contemporary homeless people a new perspective. However, while the luminous paintings are a pleasure to look at, they are so stylized that the immediacy of the story is destroyed. If the pictures don't quite seem to fit, the story itself also leaves readers slightly off-center. The real problem here is not the sleeping bread, but the fate of an old man, and the symbolic substitution doesn't quite come off. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.