From Publishers Weekly
When he wants to be alone, nine-year-old Matthew hikes up to the sky-filled meadow cleared by his grandmother. There one day he hears a hawk speak, and so begins an annual ritual in which the bird instructs the boy about his special kinship with life, an awareness that gradually pushes the limits of Matthew's senses as he communes with nature. In an admirable attempt to capture the butterflies of mystical experience, Bliss's heavy-handed text smothers the potential poetry: "When Matthew was thirteen he learned to taste all the intricacies of an apple . . . At night he could feel the moonlight as it touched him and the starlight that tingled on his skin." For some thoughtful readers, this book may reinforce a sense of nature's transcendental power on the psyche; others may squirm at the affected overtones. Lewin's watercolors evoke two separate worlds--the familiar meadows of small boys with baseball caps and the inner landscapes where human beings touch the cosmos. Although Lewin paints everyday realities handsomely, Bliss's imagistic flights apparently did not inspire him beyond a cliched blue palette and trite images of serene faces with closed eyes. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-- In this simple ecological story, Bliss presents difficult concepts in a straightforward, but poetic text. It is not a book that children will pick up and read; rather, it is one to be shared with an adult. Matthew considers the meadow above his family's farm to be his own special place where he can lie in the long, soft grass observing nature and think of his deceased grandmother. From his ninth year, when he first observes a red-tailed hawk through field glasses, to his sixteenth, he establishes a ritual visit to the spot at blackberry time. On each occasion the hawk seems to speak to him, helping him to appreciate the natural world. When he is an adult, the land has become a part of his experience, and he is able to feel the continuity of things from one generation to the next. Lewin's soft watercolor paintings deftly incorporate the message of the text, showing the meadow from a variety of perspectives. Several exceptionally fine, full-page paintings of boy and bird exhibit the same mystical quality that is found in the text. Aside from the vehicle of the talking hawk, the book's thought-provoking content provides food for discussion. Although informational books on ecology are becoming more numerous, insightful books such as this one are few. Use it with titles by Jeannie Baker, Joanne Ryder, and others to present an overview of humanity's relationship to the Earth that can heighten a child's awareness of the scheme of things. --Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
