Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The team that collaborated on Calico and Tin Horns again rummages fruitfully in America’s attic. The treasure found this time is the long-defunct business of the winter ice harvest. The unadorned text, narrated from the point of view of Jack, 12, tells of the winter his uncle teaches him the family business of cutting and storing ice from the Hudson, to be sold in the summer in New York City. Readers gain a nearly tactile appreciation of this vanished industry, thanks to the solid details (“The horses were fitted with spiked horseshoes so they wouldn’t slip on the ice”) included in the text. The dramatic center of the story, however, is Jack’s rescue of his uncle’s horse when the animal tumbles into the icy river. The simple and unvarying page design focuses attention on the lush paintings of the artist’s beloved Hudson Valley. Though the glowing violet sky of the rescue scenes may strike some readers as unnatural, for the most part Locker conjures up an appropriately wintery atmosphere. An exciting, economically told story, and an enjoyable glimpse into the past. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 5-In a first-person narrative, 12-year-old Jack chronicles his first winter helping harvest ice from the Hudson River. The boy is proud to be allowed to drive his uncle’s horse, but as they harness the animal, the man gives him a presentient warning: “‘If Max ever falls through the ice, hang on to this rope and pull hard. It will choke him, but it may save his life.'” This is advice Jack remembers when the animal does plunge into the cold water one day. Christiansen’s unadorned text contains many intriguing details and a protagonist who experiences the pride of responsibility and recovers quickly from failure. Locker’s painterly, representational oils competently illuminate the text. While his closeups of people are somewhat wooden, their expressions unrelentingly somber, his depictions of the harvesting process, done in an icy-cold palette, are excellent. Page layouts emphasize the sweep and linearity of the river landscape. Younger readers may need more explanation emphasizing the lack of refrigeration, but all children who love a story in which a youngster acts heroically will find the action engrossing. A fascinating piece of Americana engagingly recollected.
Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 3-5. With author Christiansen, noted children’s book illustrator Locker returns to his beloved Hudson River Valley for a story set in an era of horse-drawn ice carriages. Speaking in unaffected prose, Jack the narrator looks back on his experiences as a 12 year old working his first ice harvest. With a chestnut horse named Max pulling the harness, Jack helps Uncle Joe mark ice into blocks. When spring approaches, Max crashes through the ice (as foreshadowed by Uncle Joe) and is dramatically rescued. Combining the literal and the impressionistic, the action is visually telescoped near the story’s end. While the scene of men and horses struggling to pull Max out of the water is dominated by icy shades of purple and blue, the next composition, set “just as spring vacation was about to begin,” is rendered in lush shades of blue, green, and brown. Perhaps the most striking of the oil paintings is the tranquil blue sea- and skyscape depicting a small rowboat traveling through a channel on a moonlit winter’s night. Julie Corsaro
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