Synopsis
Great Aunt Liza sends a gift to her neice, Lucy, and as the box makes its way west by mail coach, each person who helps to get the package to where it is going adds something else to the box.
Reviews
Kindergarten-Grade 4-A whimsical, well-researched story. During the first half of the 19th century, Lucy's family heads west for a better life. They leave behind cranky Aunt Liza, who believes that there is "Nothing but hog music out there," and journey to Illinois. When Aunt Liza buys Lucy a new straw hat for her birthday and mails it off to her in a wooden box with a latch, the adventure begins. The route it must travel is via the National Public Road, the major travel route from Maryland to the Mississippi. After a mishap on the mail coach, it travels by handcart, then by Conestoga wagon, carriage, traveling-show wagon, and peddler's cart until it finally arrives at its destination. Each person who finds the box along the way opens it and inserts something-a feather, a clay marble, a ribbon, coffee beans, face cream. Each leg of the journey is packed with details about life at that time and conveys the message of how people helped one another out in simple ways. Schindler's charming, detailed illustrations give more information about the journey and what life was like on the road: where people slept, what they did for entertainment, who traveled, and mishaps that might have occurred. The story has appeal for many ages and should find a place in most libraries and classrooms.
Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Jaunty watercolor and gouache illustrations on parchment paper set the tone for this rollicking 1840s adventure tale of a birthday present gone astray. As young Lucy's family prepares to head West to Illinois, Aunt Liza refuses to go with them. "Nothing but hog music out there," she grumbles. Some months later, the woman packs "a plain straw hat in a plain wooden box" for Lucy's birthday, and sends it on its way with a traveling friend. When the hatbox bounces off the stagecoach, the gift falls into the hands of various characters, each of whom contributes something to the box and simultaneously fills in details of daily life (a portrait artist adds a miniature painting of his grandmother's pet hog, a farm boy pops in a clay marble, etc.). Eventually, the hatbox reaches a puzzled Lucy and her family. When Lucy writes a thank-you note back, Aunt Liza, beguiled by Lucy's talk not of hogs, but of prairie grass and "wind music," heads West for a happy reunion. Helldorfer (Phoebe and the River Flute) adopts a folksy tone for her spry story ("Whooeeee! That stagecoach headed westDand up and down and left and right") and serves up artful images ("the moon rising like a shiny supper plate over the mountains"). Schindler's (A Big Cheese for the White House) artwork wrings the most out of the tale's humorous elements (such as vignettes of seven men toe-tapping at dance lessons, then sleeping side by side in front of a roaring fire), while maintaining the precision of miniatures, and he fleshes out the scenes with an abundance of period particulars. Readers will be shouting "Westward Ho!" right along with Aunt Liza. Ages 3-8. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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