Synopsis
After finding an arrowhead in her backyard, Jenny tries to imagine what the world was like long ago and dreams of a beautiful, unspoiled place in which she meets the native American who had once owned the arrowhead.
Reviews
Grade 1-5-When Jenny finds a flint arrowhead in her garden, her mother evokes for her a time before roads, cars, cities, and trees, a time "when the land was as large and as open as the sky." Jenny tries to imagine it, but the sights and sounds around her interfere. That night, however, she sleeps in a tent in the yard and dreams of the people who made her arrowhead. She sees their circle of tepees and them sitting around a fire, and joins their world for the night. When she wakes up in the morning she reburies the flint, seeing for one last moment that lost, long-ago world. Blythe's light-dappled paintings imbue scenes of both the past and present with beauty and mystery. Selected items are depicted with precise detail and clarity (Jenny's face, the flint, a warrior's spear), while others are stippled masses of rich color. This juxtaposition contributes to the dreamlike atmosphere of the whole book. Sheldon and Blythe have pulled off an impressive feat-a conjunction of text and pictures as lovely and lyrical as their earlier collaboration, The Whales' Song (Dial, 1991).
Patricia Dooley, formerly at University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Like Sheldon and Blythe's previous collaboration, The Whales' Song , winner of the 1991 Kate Greenaway medal, this exquisite picture book is imbued with the magic of nature and dreams. When Jenny finds an arrowhead in her backyard, her mother tells her about a time when "there were no roads, no cars, no cities, and no towns. Just the people, the animals, and the land itself." That night, Jenny dreams she is invited to join a campfire gathering of Native Americans, who describe "how the world had been, so long ago, when the land was as large and as open as the sky." Together, the sonorous text and remarkable oil paintings suggest the triumph of the imagination over time. The book is not a nostalgic lament for the past; rather, it offers a glimpse of the paradoxical reality and beauty of both past and present--the sunlight on Jenny's hair and the tangle of flowers in her backyard are just as breathtaking as vistas of starlit tepees. One memorable illustration, like a doubly exposed photograph, depicts a suburban street as the burnished face of a Native American appears through the shimmering clouds and houses, as if present and past were one. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The team that collaborated on the widely praised The Whales' Song (1991) essays a theme explored most notably in George Ella Lyons's Dreamplace (1993) and Who Came Down That Road (1992). Here, finding an arrowhead sets little Jenny to dreaming of the Plains Indians who once occupied the site; after a day imagining their presence, she sleeps out and, in a vivid dream, returns the arrowhead to them. Both the straightforward text and the British artist's oil paintings capture the child's sense of wonder, while Blythe's expansive, romantically luminous art is sure to attract admirers even though Jenny's yard resembles an English garden more than it does a suburban midwestern setting. Pretty, but not essential. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Ages 5-8. After finding an arrowhead in her backyard, Jenny tries to imagine what the world was like before roads were paved, cars were used, and houses were built. She asks to sleep outside, in a tent, and then dreams she awakens in a time gone by, surrounded by tepees. Blythe's oil paintings are at their best in this dreamworld, which is lit by a firelight that makes the night scenery luminous. When dawn comes to the real world, Jenny buries the arrowhead, reestablishing the connection between the old world and the new. An introductory note clearly identifies the ancient inhabitants as the Sioux of South Dakota. Mary Harris Veeder
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