From Publishers Weekly
Australian poet Turner wrote this poem--which has since become a classic down under--when her five-year-old son started school. Her verses distill the essence of the emotions felt by a child on that first unaccompanied walk to school--the trepidation caused by terrors that lurk around every corner (such as fierce dogs and boisterous older boys), the determination to be brave, and the glorious hope that the preschoolers one passes will think that one is much older--seven, perhaps, or even eight. Gouldthorpe's splendid illustrations have a nostalgic turn-of-the-century look and are full of the interplay of light and shadow. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 1 Up-- There may be some relevance for our TV drenched school starters in this turn-of-the-century Australian poem. Surely, for older adults (Depression kids), there is a fair dose of nostalgia evoked by the small-town events narrated in rhymed, four-line stanzas. On his own, books dangling from a strap, cap set squarely on his flaxen hair, the five-year-old hero goes goes off, past the pasture, town bullies, stray dogs, the dirt-streeted town square, and into the schoolyard. The boy's inner thoughts help readers interpret the double-page pictures. The use of black wax crayon to draw the outline of objects and watercolors to create the forms and add to the naturalism of the scenes suggest old hand-colored tintype photographs. Pages are designed to accentuate the emotional content: a strong diagonal of a taut leash holding a snapping hound; the grouping of rectangles as doors, windows, fence post to produce the solidity of a house protecting a preschool girl. There's little to suggest Australia, so readers might consider the vignette a piece of American (Euro-America because all humans are Caucasians here) history. --Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
