Children's Book Reviews

Page Two of Three

Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew

Orchard Books, June, 2001.
Picture Book, 32 pages
ISBN: 053130325X
Ages 4-8
Ordering information:
Amazon.com


Katie and the Sunflowers
by James Mayhew Author/illustrator James Mayhew has a unique way of introducing young children to the enjoyment of art. He puts a child named Katie into the paintings and allows Katie to interact with the subjects of the paintings. Mr. Mayhew is very adept at capturing the colors and form of the original paintings. He then goes a step further by incorporating the paintings' backgrounds and subjects into a clever narrative. No child who has read this book, or who has shared it with an adult, will forget what is in these particular paintings because everything in them is made to come alive in the narrative, as well as in the illustrations.

Katie is helping her grandmother in the garden when it begins to rain. Grandma suggests that they go to the museum instead. In the museum Grandma must sit down to rest and this leaves Katie time to look around. When she finds a painting called Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh, Katie feels that because the painting looks dry and crunchy that she might be able to get some seeds for her garden. She reaches into the painting to get the seeds (where are the ever nervous museum guards who watch children so anxiously?). Disaster happens and the entire vase falls out of the painting, spilling the flowers all over the floor. Katie, much distressed, hears giggling and finds that the girls in Paul Gaugain's Breton Girls are enjoying her dilemma. Katie asks for help and the girls finally agree if Mimi can bring her dog, Zazou. But Zazou immediately rushes into Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night carrying the sunflowers with him. The merry little chase proceeds through Cezanne's Still Life with Apples and Oranges, and Paul Gauguin's Tahitian Pastorals where the little group meets two beautiful women and their red dog. Zazou's frantic digging uncovers pirate treasure which Katie tries to share with the women. They refuse the money because they live in paradise and have everything they could ever want. Katie and Mimi take a few coins, thank the women and then try to find their way back through the museum trying to put everything back as it should be. Finally after all of her adventures, Katie finds Grandma again, and tells Grandma that she likes the rain because it makes everything grow. Having the paintings come alive in Katie's adventure will surely give any child a familiarity with the work of the post impressionists and a comfortable feeling about art museums. On the last page the reader will find a very helpful summary of the point of view of the post impressionists which will add an historical interest to the story. This little story should delight any adult or child unless, of course, one is a museum guard.

--Sarah Reaves White


Nutik, The Wolf Pup by Jean Craighead George, Illustrated by Ted Rand

HarperCollins, January, 2001.
Picture Book, 40 pages
ISBN: 0060281642
Ages 4-8
Ordering information:
Amazon.com


Nutik, The Wolf Pup
by Jean Craighead George, Illustrated by Ted Rand Jean Craighead George is well known as an author of children's books dealing with nature. Almost all children who have reached the sixth grade have read and loved a story written by this acclaimed author. Her books are stories that speak to children about their relationship to the land and the ways of the creatures that inhabit the earth. Children have a special need to relate to animals, both domestic and wild. In a world where most children will have very little contact with any animals, reading can bridge this gap. Nutik, the Wolf Pup will address the very strong emotions of love, caring, and the profound pain of separation that children can feel.

Nutik, the Wolf Pup is the story of a very young Eskimo boy who lives with his family at the top of the world in an Eskimo village. His father, Kapugen, is a great hunter and his sister Julie knows the ways of wolves and entertains him with wolf stories. Julie tells Amaroq how a wolf pack once saved her life and how its leader, also named Amaroq, had shared the pack's food with her. Then one day Julie brings two ill and hungry wolf pups home, and she gives one to Amaroq to raise and nurture. When the pups are well, the wolf pack will come for them, she warns.

Predictably, Amaroq loves his wolf pup just as all boys love their dogs, but Julie warns him that some day the two will have to part to live their own lives. Of course the boy is more interested in the present, and he feeds and plays with his pup who grows stronger each day. All through the arctic summer the boy and the pup play and grow up together. Then one day the call of the wolf pack is heard by both the pup and the boy, but the pup stays with the boy. Julie returns her wolf pup, but Amaroq puts off the inevitable day. In the deepening darkness and approaching cold of August, the wolf pack continues to call. One night Nutik awakens Amaroq and leads him to his parka and then to the door. The time has come. The boy returns Nutik to his family and hurries home in the dark before his tears freeze.

The boy suffers all the heartbreak of separation, a heartbreak with which all children will empathize. Whether it is through divorce, or just the loss of a family pet, separation brings a deep and lasting pain which most children have experienced. They will understand how old activities, whether fishing with father or just eating will lose any importance or comfort. They will also rejoice with Amaroq when one night he finds that the wolf pup has made a choice and is asleep deep in his bearskin sleeping bag. The happy ending is made even more satisfying when Julie calls across the tundra to the wolves that Nutik has joined her family and the wolves call back that they think that it is a good thing.

Ted Rand has researched the arctic during his travels there to work on the illustrations for this book. He easily shows the spirit of the Eskimo family with its strong love for each other and for the ways of the North. Some of the illustrations are particularly striking, such as his portrait of the leader of the wolf pack, Amaroq, on one page and the charming young namesake with a front tooth missing on the next page. The painting of the deep sorrow of the boy and his pup is touching, as is the figure of the sad child trudging home alone through the snow and the darkness. The colors and style of the paintings portray the many moods of arctic life with great sensitivity.

Stories of deep affection and separation are important to children, because they express feelings that children themselves have difficulty in forming into words. Books about children who are learning the sometimes harsh laws of nature are especially helpful for children as they grow up. Nutik, the Wolf Pup will be cherished by any child fortunate enough to receive it as a gift.

--Sarah Reaves White


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