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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | EASY ROG | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | EASY ROG | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | EASY ROG | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Action, adventure, and time travel combine in the final book of an award-winning trilogy.
Narrowly escaping from a gang of bullies, a boy slips into a grand old gallery--the perfect hiding place, full of mystery and treasures. Suddenly, a painting comes to life and the boy finds himself on an adventure led by a mischievous dog that has leapt from the canvas. The two slip into a Vermeer painting and are transported to Little Street, Delft in seventeenth-century Holland, where the boy has to use every ounce of his ingenuity to rescue his new friend from an untimely fate.
The third book in the "Boy, Bear" series, The Hero of Little Street is packed with thrilling escapades from start to finish. Gregory Rogers's cast of much-loved characters come together once again in this triumph of visual storytelling.
Author Notes
Gregory Rogers was an Australian author and illustrator. He studied fine art at the Queensland College of Art and worked as a graphic designer after completing his studies. He was the first Australian to receive the Carnegie Medal, for Libby Hathorn¿s Way Home. Rogers was best known in the United States for his book, The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Rogers died of stomach cancer in Brisbane on May 1. He was 55.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Rogers's third wordless book features the young hero from The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard (Roaring Brook, 2004). His first escapade occurs in modern-day London near the National Gallery. It involves a soccer ball, a fountain, and a flight from bullies. Fans of the previous titles will recognize familiar characters cleverly incorporated into the art when the protagonist seeks refuge inside the museum. Befriended by the dog in Van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, the youngster follows him into Vermeer's A Lady Seated at a Virginal. After enjoying a musical interlude and a gift that later proves useful back in the real world, the twosome exit into Vermeer's The Little Street, ultimately encountering a canine-caging butcher in 17th-century Holland. Rogers's visual narrative is both an aesthetic treat and masterful storytelling. Small panels with minimal detail, often on white, focus the eye on motivations, causes, and sequential action. Larger frames, full-page bleeds, and a single, glorious spread generally show consequences-a slowing of activity, allowing viewers to take in the Old World charm of the majestic halls, paintings, and Delft cityscapes-all rendered in watercolor and ink and shown from varying perspectives. The scenes are frequently humorous, as when all of the rescued dogs crowd around the virginal. This rare combination of action-packed fun and fine art yields new discoveries with each reading and is sure to create fond memories for future students of Art 101.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Rogers's wordless comic The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard (2004), a soccer-loving boy time-travels to Elizabethan London and outmaneuvers a grumpy Shakespeare. Now, the same child gets on the wrong side of three bullies and takes shelter in an art museum. Readers of the previous book know the game is afoot when the boy wanders past framed portraits of the Bear and the Bard. When the brown lapdog from Van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait hops down to join the boy, a "Dutch Masters" theme emerges. The boy and dog clamber into another painting-Vermeer's "A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal"-and after the lady plays them a tune, they all step outside into 17th-century Delft. Connoisseurs will recognize the red-brick building facade from Vermeer's "The Little Street," which gives Rogers his sly title. The romp continues through the streets of Holland, culminating in doggy misbehavior and a nutty farce. The playful visual allusions are sidelined in favor of the slapstick chase, yet Rogers deftly (and Delftly) combines rapid-fire hilarity with art appreciation. Ages 3-8. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, 2004, and A Midsummer Knight, 2007) returns for another wordless metafictive adventure, this one centering on Dutch painting. The action starts in modern-day Trafalgar Square, where the Boy dumps three other boys' soccer ball into a fountain and then flees to the National Gallery. After some aimless wandering, he's only a little astonished to find the scruffy little dog from van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait jumping out of the frame to play. The dog leads the Boy into Vermeer's Young Woman Seated at a Virginal and then into the titular Little Street of 17th-century Delft, Holland. Since young readers are probably even less likely to groove on Vermeer than on Shakespeare, who figured in the earlier titles, the romp must depend upon plenty of slapstick to keep them engaged--and it delivers. Small, comic-bookstyle panels convey the action, punctuated by breathtaking longshots of galleries and the streets and canals of Delft. Boy and dog career along, tripping up pedestrians and smashing blue-and-white crockery before running afoul of a sinister butcher (who resembles a certain Bard). There's nothing stuffy about this, despite its high-toned beginning: Rogers simply uses his own love of the art as a springboard for his endearing brand of foolery. All's well that ends well, as this frolic does, with a sublime comeuppance for all the bullies, then and now. (Picture book. 4-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Australian illustrator Rogers follows The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard (2004) and Midsummer Knight (2007) with yet another wordless romp. This one opens on the streets of modern London, where a young boy is chased by a gang of toughs into an art museum. He clambers into a Vermeer painting, along with a dog he found in a different work, and the two have a hair-raising adventure through the streets of seventeenth-century Holland, rescuing a whole fleet of pups and delivering some solid comeuppance to a villainous butcher. This picture book owes more than just its panel layouts to comics, with stilt-legged adults lifted out of MAD and a round-headed kid hero straight from Peanuts' central casting. The frenetic pacing and subtle visual gags sprinkled throughout will reward repeat viewings, and the Dutch setting makes for a particularly striking backdrop. A delightful little excursion for busy imaginations.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
