Magic Words - Hardcover

Field, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152014985 ISBN 13: 9780152014988

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

Mystical creation poems explore the ancient Far North, a place where people can become anything they imagine, weather is born of a child's imagination, and rainbows mark the beginning of a new frontier.

About this title

About the Author:

Stefano Vitale is an internationally acclaimed artist and illustrator. Originally from Padua, Italy, he lived in the U.S. for many years before returning to Italy with his wife and children. He now lives in Venice and commutes in a colorful wooden boat. Visit him online at stefanovitale.com
 

From Booklist:

Gr. 3^-5, younger for reading aloud. Field has written a suite of poems based on the songs and stories of the Netsilik Inuit, collected in the first quarter of this century by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen in his travels above the Arctic Circle. Field must have lived inside those tales, because the poems on these pages ring both inevitable and mysterious: Of the earth, we learn "Children once grew / out of the ground / just as flowers do" and that thunder and lightning come from two abandoned siblings. We know about animals from a wise man who knew the trick of being a musk ox: "How warm it was in the middle of the big lowing herds / huddled together." A bear tale with echoes of both Goldilocks and Jonah has a wise one being swallowed whole and carving a door in the bear's belly: "That's the way it goes: Monster one minute, food the next." Vitale's illustrations are fabulous in the most root sense of the word. He paints in oils on bark, on wood, on stones, often set on snowlike backgrounds. He has clearly absorbed much of Inuit art's vocabulary, but there are also echoes of Japanese masks, Northwest coast iconography, and even Picasso. His passionate achievement, however, forges those influences into an art that both supports and reflects the perfect simplicity of the text. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0152014985
• ISBN 13: 9780152014988
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Vitale Stefano