From: Christine Hill <chill>
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 16:53:21 -0500

I have also had the experience of preschoolers becoming completely still and silent as Sophie was read. It is wonderful that two books so orginal and so healing as this and No David have been honored this year and last. One of the things which fascinates me about Molly Bang is that her style is so recognizable and yet so different from book to book over a period of nearly thirty years. Amazing! Compare this to her fellow bridesmaid (never a Caldecott-winning bride), Jerry Pinkney. His style has remained very much the same but has gotten better. I think that his gift is really for painting animals. I think of the rabbits dancing in The Talking Eggs or the tigers fighting in Sam and the Tigers, in addition to his work here. When this book came into the library, I just glanced at it since I'm not a great lover of Hans Christian Andersen. However, I was won over when I read it thoroughly after the prize announcement. The way the dust jacket and endpapers, front and back, make one picture, the double page spread of the duckling swimming under water and all of the winter scenes are breathtaking. His retelling of the story is very moving without being sentimental. Was anyone else reminded of Harry Potter by it? A young person/creature who is unable to see himself as beautiful


until surrounded by others like himself. Christine M. Hill Willingboro Public Library
Received on Thu 20 Jan 2000 03:53:21 PM CST