Over the River and Through the Wood - Softcover

PreS - Grade 2-- This attractive new presentation of Child's 1844 poem,"A Boy's Thanksgiving Day," offers 13 full-page watercolors done in a detailed and delicately primitive style. As befits this style, the figures are somewhat stiff, and the overall effect is static. The colors are pleasingly light and clear. The childlike illustrations are in keeping with the unsophisticated nature of the rhyming text. Unlike the version illustrated with lively energy by Brinton Turkle (Coward, 1974), only 6 of the 12 verses are included, a streamlining that modern preschool and primary-grade teachers may well appreciate. The text is placed unobtrusively in the sky or on the snow-covered ground, and probably sings better than it reads. A piano arrangement of the familiar melody, a traditional French folk tune, is placed after the text. Child's time-honored poem successfully evokes the happy mood of a traditional and idealized family holiday gathering. --Cynthia Bishop, Onondaga County Public Library, Syracuse, NY
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