The Yellow House - Softcover

Blake Morrison, the author of fiction, poetry, journalism, literary criticism, and libretti, is perhaps best known for his two memoirs: And When Did You Last See Your Father? and Things My Mother Never Told Me. He lives in London.

Helen Craig is a widely acclaimed illustrator of books for children, including Phyllis Root’s Thirsty Thursday, Philippa Pearce’s A Finder’s Magic, and the hugely popular stories about Angelina Ballerina. She lives in England.

Kindergarten-Grade 2 An interesting excursion into fantasy. The unnamed heroine is fasci nated by a mysterious unoccupied house that she passes every day. One day a small boy invites her in, and to the continuing refrain ``Come and see this!'' he shows her the wonders of the garden around the house: a tiger play ing with its cubs in the grass; a dolphin in the goldfish pond; a pelican in the apple tree; a large snake in the green house; a panda in the trashcan, reading a newspaper. As the story closes, she is continuing her walks, each time hoping she can once again enter the garden. The story is told in simple language, the poet-author laying allusions gently be neath the surface and using his tools to manipulate the structure of the text to lend it rhythmic power. Craig catches the poetic feeling in the quietly odd per spectives of some of her etchings, which formally frame the action. The reproduction of these pale pastel col ored illustrations is often fuzzy, which works well, as it lends an air of misty fantasy. Craig also extends some of Morrison's ideas, as when she shows the boy as the same size as, and wear ing the same clothes as, a garden gnome seen every day by the young narrator. While the story is slight, it carries a cer tain power, and some care has been taken in its telling. The result is a tidy, but minor, success. Christine Behr mann, New York Public Library
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