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Summary
Summary
The call to self expression haunts a delicate, poignant tale about family and art, love and longing -- and the ineffable tie between parent and child.
Clara lives with her father and grandmother in a little village. More than anything, Clara loves to dance, but her father has had too much sadness in his life to abide dancing. When Clara sees a troupe of dancers performing in the village one June day, she is enchanted enough to follow their wagons deep into the forest -- and what she finds there changes her life forever. This bewitching fairy tale by master storyteller Amy Ehrlich, tenderly illustrated by Rebecca Walsh, honors the call to the artistic life and acknowledges with compassion the pain of those left behind.
Author Notes
Amy Ehrlich has had a long and distinguished career in children's books, both as an author and an editor. Her books include Rachel, The Story of Rachel Carson and the retelling of many fairy tales like The Wild Swans, Cinderella, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, Rapunzel and A Treasury of Princess Stories. Ehrlich is also a winner of The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for her novel Joyride, which was also chosen Booklist Choice Best Book of the Decade.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Both a haunting fairy tale and a parable for families separated by divorce or death, this lyrically rendered story also presents art as a vehicle for transcending pain. In a long-ago village, Clara lives with her silent father and loving grandmother, who tells her about her absent mother, a lover of music and dance. When musicians come to the village, Clara cannot resist their lure and slips away to the forest to dance with them at night; she comes close to joining them, but her father stops her-by coming out to the forest, recognizing his wife among the dancers, joining her briefly and forgiving her for leaving: "I understand you can't come back." Ehrlich (Baby Dragon) knows precisely how to turn description into the foundation of fairy tale (as Clara wades across a river, "the edge of her nightgown grew dark with water"), and her bittersweet ending barricades the story against didacticism. Working in a representational style, Walsh (How the Tiny People Grew Tall) adds lush paintings of an idealized old world, and her nighttime scenes glow. Ages 6-10. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
After the death of her grandmother, Clara's father grows colder and more distant, discouraging music and dance in their home. One night, after following a troupe of performers camped in the forest, Clara learns the surprising truth about her family. The sophisticated text, illustrated with luminous watercolor and acrylic paintings, invites discussion for older picture book readers. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In a quaint yesteryear village, Clara loves to dance to the songs her grandmother plays on the piano. Then her grandmother dies, and Clara is left alone in a silent house with her silent father. A traveling dance troupe thrills her with its music and movement, and after following the performers to their wooded camp, she connects with a beautiful dancer who, she is astonished to discover, is her long-lost mother. Many children will be troubled that, after a tender reunion with Clara and her father, her mother leaves once again, and the specific themes of reconciling family life and artistic independence may tap more into adult concerns. Still, Ehrlich skillfully guides her audience toward understanding and empathy for everyone, both the dancer and the loved ones she leaves behind, and Walsh's richly toned acrylic paintings extend the story's moody, melancholic beauty and poignant sense of the characters' emotions. Lengthy and meandering, this isn't a natural story-hour choice, but it will resonate with children who know the excitement of finding an artistic passion or the heartache of family separation.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2009 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Raised by her somber father, Clara is enchanted by her grandmother's joyful stories about her mother's dancing. After Granny's death, her father becomes even more withdrawn, keeping the curtains closed and discouraging music. One summer a troupe of musicians and dancers arrives in the village. The eight-year-old sneaks out to see their performance and later follows their wagon tracks to their next destination. In the forest, a kindhearted dancer helps Clara to discover her own dancing talent before sending her back home. Infatuated with the life of a traveling dancer, however, she decides to leave her silent home for good. Her father pursues her, and his dramatic arrival ends with the revelation that the woman who befriended Clara is her mother. The child returns home to live with her father-who has been miraculously relieved of his sadness-and Clara looks forward to joining her mother when she is older. Ehrlich's tale may charm early elementary girls if they are patient enough to listen to the entire story, but adults will be left shaking their heads at the coincidences and unrealistic developments. Of greater concern is the possibility that children who have lost a parent may receive false hope of a reunion. Walsh's gentle period paintings set a cozy and inviting tone, but libraries should consider this an additional purchase.-Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Clara is a little girl who loves to dance. Every time she hears her granny's lilting melodies or the sweet sounds of the larks, her feet long to move. But her father is serious and solemn. He does not allow music or dance in the house. So, like the caged bird hanging in the corner of her room, Clara is trapped, closed off from what she loves most. But one morning a troupe of traveling musicians and dancers come to town. Real, live dancers! Clara has never seen anything like them before. Mesmerized by their graceful leaps and swirling arms, she follows the troupe late at nightdaring to dream that she too could some day live a life of dance. The deep shadows of the forest match the sorrow etched on Clara's father's face, but a golden glow from Walsh's brush never fails to break through the darkness. This tender fairy tale of love, family and longingwith a cadence as smooth as the floating waltzes found within its pagesis achingly exquisite. (Picture book. 7-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
