Customer Reviews

LA Corona and the Tin Frog

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the last book I remember my granny giving me before her untimely death. I was just turned six years old. Fifteen years later, my copy is somewhat well-read, creased, dog-eared and tattered. I wouldn't part with it. The pictures - I forget who the artist is - glow. They are exquisitely detailed, rich, deep, and haunting; an exact and perfect complement to the prose. It is a magical book; one that should be back in print AT ONCE and NOW. Elegant prose; exquisite turn of language. Even after so long quotes roll around my mouth like the finest wine - and ever since then I have been striving to see between the dots; to step through the window between the clock's striking one to twelve.

La Corona and the Tin Frog is a very beautiful book. It brings together the discordant harmonies of the short stories with fluent elegance and a truly mature style; imparts magic to the cosy world of a child's nursery. The artist who illustrated my copy truly captured the mood and magic of the book; so much that as a tiny child I was terrified, enthralled and entranced all at once. It is one of the books I would never be without - I may purchase a less battered copy in time, but I shall always cherish and treasure the last book my granny bought me. Buy this for your children where you see a copy. Especially if the cover shows a cigar-box, a beautiful woman in a red dress, a green tin frog, and a wooden incense-burner shaped like a night watchman. That copy is a work of art!

At age 27, one feels a bit odd reviewing a picture book, but fans of Hoban will be forced to throw all preconceptions about literature aside and go wherever the man's wanderings lead. In this case, he's snuck all his brilliance into what might appear as a harmless picture book about toys--yes very quickly all the familiar themes from Mouse and his Child begin to show up, and quite soon the story becomes almost mythical, with everything centering around that magic moment at precisely midnight, before the bells of the old clock have rung. The story is at first fragmentary but then these fragments join together, the multiple stories intertwining. In some ways, the book is really quite odd, because while the clock is ticking, the world of these toys is quite dead, spent either deep in thought/longing or in total inactivity, but when time has stopped (or that instant before midnight) that the toys can persue their dreams. Unlike myths where the 'real world' is born out of a timelesss age, the toys world comes into existance when time stops. The entire book is wonderful and if it were actually available I would purchase it without hesitation. As it stands, pray that your library has a copy. A book for everyone!