From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3--Walking to the Creek never rises to a pace faster than a stroll. Two brothers make a lazy afternoon expedition to a creek on their grandparents' farm. There are imaginative descriptions of everything they see: barn, garden, cows, animal footprints, corn, and soybeans. Reaching their goal, they notice cut trees and a bulldozed bank on one side of the bridge, but nothing is made of this indication of development and change. The dogs have their own agendas. There's no plot, no conflict, no message but the brothers' camaraderie and the tenderly evoked, pleasantly nostalgic environs of a family farm. Allen's illustrations are sunnier and more colorful than those he did for In Coal Country (Knopf, 1987), but in a similarly homespun vein. Casually sketched and slightly blurred, they seem to be images from memory, seen through a haze of time. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
