From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4–This original tale is written in the spirit of a traditional quest. Hieronymus has set out to measure and record everything worth knowing. Just when he thinks there is nothing left to learn, he finds a hair on his desk, one that he cannot match with the 36 million kinds in his collection. When another specimen drifts through the window, he follows the breeze to track its origins, embarking on a journey that takes him through three strange lands. The Bobnatabobs equate wisdom with loud noise, the Pabnayabish have no memory and thus live in a continuous state of discovery, and the Yabodabos live in constant fear of the unknown. When he eventually returns home–still without an answer–his lazy assistant, Pieter (master of 234 napping techniques), proposes that the hair may be Hieronymus's own. The conclusion finds the scholar musing on how little he knows himself and challenges readers to consider what they need to know. The witty and intelligent narrative includes direct addresses to the audience. The choice of names and specific visual references, as well as the overall aesthetic of the double-page paintings, suggest that Kompaneyets was inspired by the work of Hieronymous Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, and Jan Vermeer. The images are rendered in sepia tones with borders depicting objects from nature and the laboratory. This thought-provoking study of the agony and ecstasy of the pursuit of knowledge would make an interesting companion to Paul Fleischman's
Weslandia (Candlewick, 1999).
–Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Gr. 2-4. If you stepped on a bug, you'd probably do nothing. But the scholar Hieronymus knows what he must do--measure the "crunchy-squishiness" of bugs, just as he determined the saltiness of ink and the bounciness of sausage. One day, just as he's run out of things to measure, he finds a single white hair that he can't identify. Hieronymus travels the world in search of this hair's source, encountering the noisy Bobnatabobs, the forgetful people of Pabnayabishland, and the Yabodabos who live in never-ending fear. Finally, his assistant points out that the hair might have come from his head: "For all my knowledge of things great and small, how truly little do I know myself!" the scholar exclaims. This picture book for older readers is at once silly and philosophical, its frivolity tempered by the dimly lit classically styled paintings, which, in some cases, are too dark for much impact. Still, many will enjoy Hieronymus' almost Oz-like journey through strange lands.
Karin SnelsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
