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Summary
Summary
Jane Yolen introduces us to the fickle scarecrow, who decides to leave his station and dance away the fall night. He leaps through the fields until he reaches the farmhouse, where he sees a small light in the window. Inside, a boy is saying his prayers, and he offers up a special prayer for the corn that will be harvested in the morning. Humbled, the scarecrow knows what he has to do: He returns to the field and watches over the corn as only he can. Masterfully told, with illustrations by award winner Bagram Ibatoulline, this book has all the makings of a new classic.
Author Notes
Jane Yolen was born February 11, 1939 in New York City. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1960 and a master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. After college, she became an editor in New York City and wrote during her lunch break. She sold her first children's book, Pirates in Petticoats, at the age of 22. Since then, she has written over 300 books for children, young adults, and adults.
Her other works include the Emperor and the Kite, Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and The Devil's Arithmetic. She has won numerous awards including the Kerlan Award, the Regina Medal, the Keene State Children's Literature Award, the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Golden Kite Award, the Jewish Book Award, the World Fantasy Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In an autumn cornfield, a threadbare scarecrow leaps high into the sky to dance across the darkening landscape. The pastoral evening images evoke a bygone era, and the descriptions of the scarecrow's excursion are both nostalgic and visceral. "He danced past tractor/ In the field,/ Still waiting to/ Bring in the yield.... He danced by barn/ As red as blood/ And two pigs sleeping/ In the mud." The scarecrow (who has the potential to frighten, though his wide painted smile helps) peers through the window of a solitary farmhouse where a boy-in glowing, soft-focus light-prays at his bedside: "And bless tonight/ Our old scarecrow/ Who guards the fields/ And each corn row," his prayer launching a closing poetic meditation. "What prayers do scarecrows/ Make to God?/ Of sky and rain,/ And wind and sod?" While such reflections may be too obscure for some, the scarecrow's ethereal movements and Ibatoulline's hazy and atmospheric setting (the azure night sky is especially haunting, as the scarecrow leaps back into his rightful place) will stay with readers. Ages 4-8. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
A scarecrow springs to life in this atmospheric illustrated poem. Rhyming couplets build the suspense as the inanimate figure awakens: His arms of straw / Were flung about, / His mouth began / A windy shout. Ibatoulline's beautiful, spooky, dimly lit images, rendered in gouache and watercolor, show the slender straw man floating and dancing until he spots a boy, snug in his farmhouse bedroom, and discovers that the child includes him in his bedtime prayers. With a renewed sense of purpose, he returns to his original place: For anyone can dance / . . . But only I / Can keep fields free. Flashes of an ominous tone jar against the poem's bouncing rhythms, as in a reference to a barn / As red as blood, and the dreamy autumn moodiness in the pictures, which may startle very young kids, sometimes feels at odds with the lines' singsong quality. Older readers may also puzzle over the story's religious, even Christian, undertones. Still, this thought-provoking offering will make an unusual addition to the ghost-and-mummy canon of Halloween titles.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2009 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
On the back cover of this witty sendup of "The Runaway Bunny" is a rabbit sphinx balefully overlooking a "mummy" chasing after a child. That pretty much suras up Rex's comical take on Margaret Wise Brown's tender classic. "If you try to get me," says the little mummy, "I will turn into a serpen that lurks at the bottom of the sea." Mother Mummy, a spiny octopus wearing a pharaoh hat, angrily replies, "I will become a sea monster that will wrap around you and never let go." Knowledge of the original not essential, but helpful. THE SCARECROW'S DANCE By Jane Yolen. Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. Unpaged. Simon & Schuster. $16.99. (Ages 4 to 8) In Ibatoulline's haunting illustrations, a "wild wind" takes a forlorn scarecrow and sends it dancing across fields. Looking eerily human , it flies over cornstalks into a starlit sky. The reader may have mixed feelings about the message when the scarecrow remembers his place and bows in a kind of prayer to his wooden pole, "which - tall and straight - just fit his soul." The pictures hint at a different story. AGAINST THE ODDS By Marjolijn Hof. Translated by Johanna H. Prins and Johanna W. Prins. 124 pp. Groundwood/Anansi. $18.95. (Ages 9 to 12) This first novel, by a Dutch writer, shows the impact at home when a father on a dangerous mission (he's a doctor specializing in war zones) goes missing. Kiki obsessively imagines that she can somehow lower the odds of his being killed. But most strikingly, the novel lets us see her parents as she does - as real and flawed, if lovable, people. Her father isn't forced into peril: "He likes to be needed." Her mother copes but has little left over for Kiki. THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY Illustrated by Jeremy Holmes. Unpaged. Chronicle. $16.99. (Ages 3 and up) A mysteriously popular subject for picture books, "the old lady who swallowed a fly" has never looked creepier or more inviting than in this striking book shaped like a slim tie-box. Two eyes at the top peer through plastic-covered spectacles, and as the story reaches the inevitable outcome ("There was an old lady who swallowed a horse. / She died of course"), they suddenly shut - a wonderful comic effect that may cause squeals of delight. MAX AND THE DUMB FLOWER PICTURE By Martha Alexander with James Rumford. Unpaged. Charlesbridge. $9.95. (Ages 4 to 7) The problem here for a freethinking pre-schooler is presented on the first page: "Max didn't want to color the dumb flower picture. Miss Tilley wanted him to." Instead of filling in the prefab flower for Mother's Day, Max (looking wonderfully grumpy) runs off to make his own drawing. It's a triumph when the class joyfully follows suit. Martha Alexander (1920-2006) left notes and sketches for this story about the possibilities of "a blank sheet of paper," and James Rumford ably completed it. FROM "THE SCARECROW'S DANCE" THE BOG BABY By Jeanne Willis. Illustrated by Gwen Millward. Unpaged. Schwartz & Wade Books. $16.99. (Ages 3 to 7) The hopeful expression on the bright blue Bog Baby - a creature that may be found when one is not playing at Annie's house, as promised - is the main selling point of this charmingly conceived modern fable. The narrator remembers the day she sneaked off with her sister to the "magic pond" to go fishing, but instead found a Bog Baby, which they tried to keep in a bucket, feeding him cake crumbs. In the end, of course, they had to let him go, "back where he belonged." JULIE JUST
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Despite the pairing of formidable talents, this book will likely have a limited audience. The purposeful plot is driven by its message: a scarecrow that experiences the freedom of a wind-blown night decides to return to his post (literally) after witnessing the farm boy on his knees, praying for the straw man's success in guarding the crops. There is little action, except for the protagonist breezing along past a dimly lit tractor, weathered barn, and cows at rest. Each of Ibatoulline's gouache and watercolor scenes is technically brilliant and atmospheric, but there is a disconnect with the sequencing and passage of time. Opening pages depict the corn silhouetted against a sky that is pink at the horizon and hazy blue on the upper borders of the spreads (twilight?). Subsequent spreads are a mixture of deeper blues, then a return to pink light, a misty gray, rose again, and finally almost turquoise; the effect is disconcerting. The sentimentality climaxes when the scarecrow peers through the darkness into the boy's bedroom, which is drenched in an orange glow. Yolen's unremarkable poetry reads: "The scarecrow heard/With painted ears,/And wept a pail/Of painted tears." Adults may find this story of "faith and duty" uplifting, but kids will prefer the nocturnal farm adventures found in Bill Martin and John Archambault's Barn Dance! (Holt, 1986).-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
One autumn's eve, the forlorn scarecrow watching over the cornfield is magically freed. Silently he leaps and dances through the fields, exultant. Up to a farmhouse window he twirls to witness a young boy praying. A blessing on the scarecrow for a bountiful harvest is what the child asks. The scarecrow weeps, knowing " 'For anyone can dance,' / Thought he, / 'But only I / Can keep fields free.' " Understanding his duty, the scarecrow returns to the fields to fulfill his calling. Yolen's atmospheric tale alludes to Christ's sacrifice, and Ibatoulline reinforces that theme with the final image: the scarecrow sacrosanct on his cross-like pole. The rhyming text creates an eerie atmosphere, mixing the sacred with the profaneblood-red barns, cawing crows and a moon "As yellow as / A black cat's eye." Beautifully painted environments sweep across the pages, standing in stark contrast to the scarecrow's face, which has a much more graphic quality. A conversation-starter for parents interested in discussing the meaning of sacrifice or who wish to explore Christian faith with their children. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
