Details
Synopsis
This picture book includes four poems by Robert Louis Stevenson--"A Good Play," "Block City," "The Land of Counterpane," and "Where Go the Boats." Illustrated with acrylic paintings.
| Size | | Height: | 10.8 in | | Width: | 8.8 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 14.4 oz |
Industry Reviews
Four poems, culled from Stevenson's 1885 A Child's Garden of Verses, comprise this violently colorful yet dreary volume. Although Stevenson's rhymes are superficially about playing, Grover (Max's Wacky Taxi Day) channels the bedridden Scottish poet's loneliness and evokes a gloomy atmosphere. "The Land of Counterpane" begins: "When I was sick and lay a-bed,/ I had two pillows at my head,/ And all my toys beside me lay/ To keep me happy all the day." In the desolate accompanying image, a boy lies on his back, staring out and away from the playthings that litter his blanket. In "A Good Play," two boys build a makeshift indoor ship: "But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,/ So there was no one left but me." The illustration shows a lone boy holding a slice of cake and raising his fork, but the motion seems arrested, as though the cake isn't at all appealing. Grover arranges undiluted complementary hues in orderly, eye-boggling patterns: an aqua-green sheet magnifies a scarlet toy house, a purple bedpost stands against a hot-yellow wall. In spite of the bright acrylics, the stylized images have a static, weighty feel, calling to mind the "leaden soldiers" of "Counterpane." Ages 5-8. (Oct.)
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