Time to Go

As he and his family prepare to leave, a child takes one last look at their farm home.

A small boy walks with his dog slowly across his deserted farm remembering when times were different. Once there were pigs to feed, and now the mud is cracked and baked in the pigpen; once the silo burst with grain, and now the calls of blackbirds echo in the emptiness. Once the house was warm and happy, but now it is silent and shut tight. It is time for this child and his family to go, as it has been for thousands of others displaced by recent farm crises. Loss of this magnitude is a particularly difficult subject for a children's book. However, the Fidays meet the challenge responsibly, bringing the complicated issue to a child's level. A sense of loss is, after all, one that children can identify with, even if their experiences have not been quite so traumatic. But the determination of the boy to return someday and his optimism at the story's end is empowering. Allen's pastel illustrations give the story an evocative, reminiscent quality that complements the mood of the prose well. This is a powerful story, simply written and beautifully illustrated. --Lee Bock Pulaski, Brown County Pub . Libraries, Green Bay, WI
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Allen's subdued charcoal and colored-pencil drawings ( In Coal Country ) set a somber tone for this story of a family move that will separate a child from his beloved farm. Each double-page spread reveals an aspect of farm life the boy will miss: "I'd like to find a lush green pasture for Old Nell," he says, or, "I'd like to put down fresh straw and make everything the way it was." At the end of the book the boy imagines himself coming back some day, but knows, as his father says, that "For now it's time to go." The hard times facing families that must abandon their farms is a worthy topic, but the Fidays' nostalgic view of the bucolic life is undercut by their relentlessly sentimental text--such as when the boy's dog "licks a tear from his cheek" as they sadly ride away. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.