Up North in Winter: 2 - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 3 A boy tells a story about the winter night in 1911 that his grandfather was forced to walk six miles across an icy lake. Halfway home and nearly frozen, grandpa found a fox that he thought was dead. Thinking about the ten dollars a fox pelt would bring, grandpa was revitalized, heading home with the fox around his shoulder. But when grandpa reached home, the fox ran away. However, since Grandpa and the fox warmed each other, the boy's father believes that the fox saved grandpa's life. The folksy story is the kind of family narrative to which many families will relate. Simple declarative sentences allow the story's power to emerge from the people and their actions, thus the nostalgic storyline never becomes sappy. The three generations bridge the story to the present and illustrate our connection to the past. Pencil, crayon, and watercolor illustrations perfectly capture the icy winter and solidly depict the figures and homey farm interiors, softly lit by oil lamps. The sparse text flows well from page to page and every textual nuance is explored in these splendid illustrations. Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.