Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1–This colorfully illustrated version of Stevenson’s poem is as relevant today as when it was written for A Child’s Garden of Verses in 1883. On a rainy day, a small boy constructs a city with building blocks. His imagination soars and his creation soon includes a harbor, mill, palace, and kirk (the illustrator helpfully defines the word kirk on the verso of the title page). The couch becomes a mountain range and the carpet an ocean, while a collection of toy people populate his vast domain. Done in colored pencils and gouache in rich, deep colors, the large, clear pictures have a retro feel. The boy’s real and imagined towns are both blanketed by dark rain clouds that soon give way to sun and bright blue skies. Demolition appears to be as satisfying as the building process for this youngster: Now I have done with it,/down let it go!/All in a moment/the town is laid low. Having had enough quiet entertainment for one day, he runs out into the sunshine to join friends, but his imaginary world remains clear in his mind. This enduring poem will charm modern children.–Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
PreS. First published in Stevenson’s classic collection A Child’s Garden of Verses in 1883, this timeless poem about imaginative play gets its own lively picture book here, centering on a contemporary boy who uses his building blocks to make his own world. Toddlers will see themselves in clear, double-page spreads that show the boy on the carpet by the sofa, using colored blocks of different shapes and sizes to build a town by the sea. The simple rhyming words (“Great is the palace / with pillar and wall, / A sort of a tower / on the top of it all”) and crisp computer graphics show how single shapes and objects can join in all kinds of scenarios. Then comes the power of knocking everything all down (“block upon block / lying scattered and free”), though the boy will always remember his town by the sea–even as he joins his friends outside in their suburban subdivision. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) spent his childhood in Edinburgh, Scotland, but traveled widely in the United States and throughout the South Seas. He was author of many novels, including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, The Black Arrow, and Treasure Island.
Daniel Kirk has written and illustrated numerous books, including Hush, Little Alien; Bigger; Humpty Dumpty; Jack and Jill; Moondogs; and Snow Family. In addition he has illustrated two poetry collections; Go! and Dogs Rule!; and several titles by other authors, namely Chugga Chugga Choo Choo and My Truck Is Stuck by Kevin Lewis, and Hello, Hello! by Miriam Schlein. Kirk lives in New Jersey with his wife, author-illustrator Julia Gordon, and three teenage children.
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