Secret Place [Hardcover]

Eve Bunting (Author), Ted Rand (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

A small boy finds a secret place in the city that he shares with a white egret, mallards, and even ducklings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Narrated by a city boy living amid crowded concrete and clamorous machines, this visit to a "secret place" quietly confides the treasure of a tiny bit of wilderness. In Bunting's (Someday a Tree; Smoky Night) muscular prose and in Rand's (The Owl Who Became the Moon) dusky illustrations, a vulnerable, bright hope emerges. Where a hidden river runs through a cement canyon, the boy and his small band of adult friends find patches of green and evidence that nature has persevered: sparrows, of course, but also green-winged teals, buffleheads, mallards, a white egret and ducklings. Nighttime brings other marvels: a coyote, a mother possum with babies clinging to her back. The boy's response is an authentic, uncontainable enthusiasm?"I want to tell everyone what's here." But his friend's warning that "some people might want to take the secret place and change it" is too discomforting a threat. While the youngster shares the wonder of his secret place intimately and abundantly, he entrusts its precise identity not even to the reader. Revealing and concealing at the same time, this book visits upon the reader the awe and mystery of an almost sacred initiation. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3?The cover illustration reveals to readers what the young narrator has discovered?a duck and her ducklings hidden amid the concrete and grime of the city. He shares his precious find with just a few appreciative adults and, in the process, introduces readers to a variety of wildlife. As his enthusiasm for this special spot grows, he wants to tell everyone about it but wise counseling from an adult cautions him to "be careful" because "some people might want to take the secret place and change it." Instead, readers are left with a bit of a hint as to its location?just enough to send them off to explore their own cities and towns. Double-page watercolor illustrations offer varying perspectives, and nature and the urban environment alternate as the dominant element. A dark palette contributes a sense of mystery and solemnity. Nighttime scenes acquire a magical quality when characters are outlined in a golden glow. The spare but lyrical text is boxed in the blues and greens of water and sky with the city's soot often, but not always, intruding. The illustrations are large enough to share with a group, and the text has a natural pacing well suited to reading aloud. Children will be delighted by the opportunity to be included in this secret, and will also share a profound respect for nature and a sense of joy in the triumph of a small piece of wilderness over urban decay and pollution. Like the secret place, this is a story that is gentle yet powerful.?Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; 1St Edition edition (August 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395643678
• ISBN-13: 978-0395643679
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eve Bunting has written more than 200 books for children, many of which can be found in libraries around the world. Her other Clarion titles for very young readers include My Big Boy Bed, which was also illustrated by Maggie Smith, and Little Bear's Little Boat, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Secret Place" Teaches Respect and Harmony, July 20, 2000

By 

Deborah Ketner Ward - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret Place (Hardcover)

"Secret Place" is a beautiful story: through its words, illustrations, and message. The author and illustrator tell the story of a boy who finds a secret place that is the home for many kinds of urban wildlife. This story is a wonderful teaching tool for children. It teaches respect for animals and wildlife, while at the same time educating about the many different kinds of wildlife that live in the city and how they came to live in an urban environment. "Secret Place" would be excellent for an environmental unit. I would find a way to work it into any unit, or have children read it on their own. It would be a good story to read to and share with children. Another excellent book with an environmental message is "Two Days in May" by Harriet Peck Taylor.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A boy and his secret place, December 14, 2005

By 

Mark Hansen "Mr. Hansen's Class" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret Place (Hardcover)

This book is good because it has good pictures. I like the picture where the coyote licks the water. This book reminds me of Owl Moon by Jane Yolen because both stories are about boys and fathers getting together. They are both also about birds flying and the connections people have to animals. Secret Place has great descriptions like this, "Close by is a freeway where cars and trucks boom, and a railroad track with freight trains that shunt and grunt. There are warehouses with windows blinded by dust and names paint-scrawled on their brick walls."

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Keep This Book a Secret, March 11, 2011

By 

E. Kennen (Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret Place (Hardcover)

This beautiful book is about the resiliency of nature in the most unlikely places. In a little path of wetness in cement culvert in the middle of a city, a piece of wilderness thrives. Egrets, ducks, even a coyote make themselves at home in this little patch of green. And the neighborhood people who know about it relish it while keeping it safe by keeping it a secret.

Though this is a piece of fiction, it reads like something raw and moving that the author personally experienced. In a place I used to live, you could find egrets in the culvert on a foggy morning, and I was touched by reading a reminder of such special places. My young daughter, who does not have a comparable experience, also enjoyed the book and appreciated the specialness of the secret place.

This book is a great introduction to the concept of urban wilderness. I recommend it highly.