Publication Date: May 24, 1999 | Series: Picture Books
Bestselling novelist Patricia Cornwell imagines an extraordinary and beautiful land with all the appeal of a Garden of Eden in her first book for children. In a compelling fable, she explores the temptations and pitfalls that accompany freedom and choice in all our lives.
Jarrod lives far away in a land where children climb trees and soar without fear of falling, and sunlight keeps out dark shadows.
As happy as Jarrod is living with his mother and his sister, he is also curious and daring. He wonders about the mysterious pond, the one place his mother wants him to stay away from. How deep is it? Why can't he go into the water? Why is his mother so afraid for him?
One day he cannot resist going to the pond. And there he encounters the fierce, green-as-slime "god of the pond," who lives deep down in the abyss. He tantalizes Jarrod with whispered promises of giving him anything he wants if only he will come into the water. How Jarrod answers those whispers changes life not only for himself but for all the creatures who live in the pond.
The books of award-winning novelist Patricia Cornwell have received critical acclaim and become national and international bestsellers. Cornwell is the recipient of the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventura and England's coveted Gold Dagger.
This, Cornwell's first children's book, came about because of a visit to a second-grade classroom in Los Angeles. After reading their stories, Patricia Cornwell was asked by the class if she had written any stories for children. That started her thinking, and on the flight home, she opened up her laptop. Life's Little Fable is the happy outcome.
A portion of the royalties for this book is being donated to the Virginia Literacy Foundation and Reading Is Fundamental(R)(RIF(R)), the nation's oldest and largest children's literacy organization.
Grade 2-4-An adult writer does not a children's author make, as proven once again by this confusing, lifeless story. Jarrod lives in an alternative place where there is no gravity, which Cornwell describes in the following manner: "But sunlight did not make dark places called shadows in the land of the pond, and children could climb trees all day long and never fall from branch or frond." The boy nearly falls prey to his inquisitive nature and the "god of the pond," an evil crocodile that tries to tempt him into the water. Wearing "shorts made of tiger hide," he fights off the beast, somehow making his world a safe place to live. Cornwell's awkwardly stated sentences, which often attempt to rhyme, deter a smooth flow, and Gibson's pedestrian illustrations, while delivering some nice wildlife images, are generally unimaginative. This little fable falls flat. Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Patricia Cornwell was born on June 9, 1956, in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina.
Following graduation from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer, rapidly advancing from listing television programs to writing feature articles to covering the police beat. She won an investigative reporting award from the North Carolina Press Association for a series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte.
Her award-winning biography of Ruth Bell Graham, A Time for Remembering, was published in 1983. From 1984 to 1990, she worked as a technical writer and a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia.
Cornwell's first crime novel, Postmortem, was published by Scribner's in 1990. Initially rejected by seven major publishing houses, it became the first novel to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventure in a single year. In Postmortem, Cornwell introduced Dr. Kay Scarpetta as the intrepid Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1999, Dr. Scarpetta herself won the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author.
Following the success of her first novel, Cornwell has written a series of bestsellers featuring Kay Scarpetta, her detective sidekick Pete Marino and her brilliant and unpredictable niece, Lucy Farinelli, including: Body of Evidence (1991); All That Remains (1992); Cruel and Unusual (1993), which won Britain's prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the year's best crime novel; The Body Farm (1994); From Potter's Field (1995); Cause of Death (1996); Unnatural Exposure (1997); Point of Origin (1998); Black Notice (1999); The Last Precinct (2000); Blow Fly (2003); Trace (2004); Predator (2005); Book of the Dead (2007), which won the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards' Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, making Cornwell the first American ever to win this award; Scarpetta (2008); The Scarpetta Factor (2009); and Port Mortuary (2010). In 2011 Cornwell was awarded the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, one of France's most prestigious awards to honor those who have distinguished themselves in the domains of art or literature, or by their contribution to the development of culture in France and throughout the world.
In addition to the Scarpetta novels, she has written three best-selling books featuring Andy Brazil: Hornet's Nest (1996), Southern Cross (1998) and Isle of Dogs (2001); two cook books: Scarpetta's Winter Table (1998) and Food to Die For (2001); and a children's book: Life's Little Fable (1999). In 1997, Cornwell updated A Time for Remembering, which was reissued as Ruth, A Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham. Intrigued by Scotland Yard's John Grieve's observation that no one had ever tried to use modern forensic evidence to solve the murders committed by Jack the Ripper, Cornwell began her own investigation of the serial killer's crimes. In Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed (2002), she narrates her discovery of compelling evidence to indict the famous artist Walter Sickert as the Ripper.
In January 2006, the New York Times Magazine began a 15-week serialization of At Risk, featuring Massachusetts State Police investigator Win Garano and his boss, district attorney Monique Lamont. Its sequel, The Front, was serialized in the London Times in the spring of 2008. Both novellas were subsequently published as books and promptly optioned for adaptation by Lifetime Television Network, starring Daniel Sunjata and Andie MacDowell. The films made their debut in April 2010.
In April 2009, Fox acquired the film rights to the Scarpetta novels, featuring Angelina Jolie as Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Cornwell herself wrote and co-produced the movie ATF for ABC.
Often interviewed on national television as a forensic consultant, Cornwell is a founder of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, a founding member of the National Forensic Academy, a member of the Advisory Board for the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, NYC, and a member of the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital's National Council, where she is an advocate for psychiatric research. She is also well known for her philanthropic contributions to animal rescue and criminal justice, as well as endowing college scholarships and promoting the cause of literacy on the national scene. Some of her projects include the establishment of an ICU at Cornell's Animal Hospital, the archaeological excavation of Jamestown and the scientific study of the Confederacy's submarine H.L. Hunley. Most recently, she donated a million dollars to Harvard's Fogg Museum to establish a chair in inorganic science.
Cornwell's books have been translated into 36 languages across more than 50 countries, and she is regarded as one of the major international best-selling authors. Her novels are praised for their meticulous research and an insistence on accuracy in every detail, especially in forensic medicine and police procedures. She is so committed to verisimilitude that, among other accomplishments, she became a helicopter pilot and a certified scuba diver, and qualified for a motorcycle license because she was writing about characters who were doing these things. "It is important to me to live in the world I write about," she often says. "If I want a character to do or know something, I want to do or know the same thing."
Visit the author's website at: www.patriciacornwell.com
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 starsLaborious and Disjointed, June 24, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Life's Little Fable (Picture Books) (Hardcover)
In reading the book, I found it laborious. Cornwell uses figurative language and metaphorical elements in her telling of the story. It also seems choppy and disjointed throughout. As an adult, I found myself rereading several pages to clarify what exactly the meaning was. I also lost interest in the book. I think that the elements of children flying and being unbound by gravity will be appealing to children, but I think the way that she delivers the story would confuse most elementary age children. The illustrations are beautiful, but I don't really see them portraying this magical world that Cornwell created. To me it looks as though the "land of the pond" is exactly like our world. Over all I would have to say, that the book was very disappointing.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 starsMs. Cornwell's children's book is a dissappointing, June 16, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Life's Little Fable (Picture Books) (Hardcover)
While she gives it a good college try, I was very disappointed in this book. I had trouble reading it to myself and can not imagine reading it out loud to a group (which I do often as a librarian). The words did not flow smoothly as they really need to in a children's book. I was also disinterested in the story completely.
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This review is from: Life's Little Fable (Picture Books) (Hardcover)
I am very well-versed in Children's Literature and find this book a huge disappointment. While the art work is lovely, the story line is so vague and abstract, an adult can barely follow what the meaning of it is, let alone children. There is really no understanding of what takes place, the purpose of the crocodile, or the pond for that matter, or what the whole point of the story is. The meaning of all the implications in the story never come through. Cornwell is outstanding with her Scarpetta stories and I can't get enough of them! But to be so unclear in a children's book means that children don't get anything from the story, and that's a shame.
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