[CALIBK12] Richie's Picks: POND CIRCLE

[BudNotBuddy at aol.com]

Richie's Picks: POND CIRCLE by Betsy Franco  and Stefano Vitale, ill., 
McElderry Books, June 2009, 32p., ISBN:  978-1-4169-4021-0  

"This is the water/the deep, still water/that filled the  pond/by Anna's 
house." 
 
I stopped by Big O Tires yesterday to have a  burned-out brake light fixed, 
and I was chatting with the  manager about having just reviewed RIVER OF 
DREAMS.  I told him  how amazed I was that people were actually swimming in 
the Hudson these  days, and that scores of osprey and nesting pairs of bald 
eagles were  now inhabiting the river's increasingly healthy environs. 
 
In response, the manager was telling me what a disappointing  time he'd had 
recently, diving at the Great Barrier Reef.  He said that  boat strikes, 
pollution, and a tremendous influx of some variety of starfish --  due to an 
unbalanced ecosystem -- had all taken their toll on that portion of  the Reef 
to which he had traveled.
 
Talk of balances and imbalances of ecosystems bring to mind  some 
exceptional environmentally-related books for children.  I love Jean  Craighead 
George and Wendell Minor's THE WOLVES ARE BACK, which details how  restoring 
wolves to Yellowstone remedied a whole series of persistent problems  that came 
about by that ecosystem's being long out of wack.  Similarly, in  SHARK 
LIFE: STORIES ABOUT SHARKS AND THE SEA, the late Peter Benchley  explains how 
one disrupted link in an oceanic ecosystem can cause  everything to fall apart 
and die.
 
Knowing how essential it is that young  people become aware of the 
interdependence of species in a natural  system -- and the importance of each link 
in that system -- I am  incredibly excited about Betsy Franco's simple, 
lyrical, beautiful,  lively, exceptionally fun, cumulative-tale-of-a-picture book 
that  is POND CIRCLE.  This is a book that shows young readers how a  
neighborhood ecosystem begins with the algae in the pond and works its  way up to 
the howling, prowling coyote:
 
"This is the coyote/out in the dark/that stalked the  raccoon/the hungry 
raccoon/that stole the eggs/of the great horned owl/that  dived for the 
skunk/the shy striped skunk/that caught the snake/the garter  snake/that swallowed 
the frog/the loud bullfrog/that gobbled the beetle/the  diving beetle/that 
ate the nymph/the mayfly nymph/that nibbled the algae/the  jade green 
algae/that grew in the water/ the deep, still water/that filled the  pond/by 
Anna's house."
 
But what makes POND CIRCLE a truly memorable picture book  are Stefano 
Vitale's paintings depicting the circle of life in and about that  pond.  
 
I still clearly recall, a dozen years ago as Children's Buyer,  first 
examining Vitale's re-illustration of Charlotte Zolotow's WHEN THE  WIND STOPS.  
Vitale has an extremely distinctive style in which he  uses oils on plywood 
in a manner that the grain is often still visible  through the paint.  Over 
the years I've been in love with so many of  his covers and his picture 
books, but this is his best work yet.  The  flying-in-your-face horned owl, 
caught-in-the-act raccoon, and big-attitude  coyote are absolute characters!  
>From the first two-page spread --  where Vitale utilizes the wavering, 
concentric curves in the grain as  ripples in the pond that, in turn, reflect 
Anna's house in the water -- to the  final spreads where the grains are 
transformed into moon-lit striated  clouds, POND CIRCLE is a stunning work of art 
that will have young  readers howling with delight.   
 
"I am the girl/who heard the coyote/looked up from her  book/leaned out the 
window/ and howled back/"Hello, hello,/hello, out  there,'"
 
It is so fulfilling to see that there are  places like the Hudson River 
where there is real progress being  made on healing the grievous damage done to 
Mother Earth.  POND CIRCLE  is one of those great picture book stories that 
can  help foster a new generation of budding environmentalists to continue 
that  healing.
 
Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks 
_http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks_ 
(http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks) 
BudNotBuddy at aol.com
Moderator,  _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_ 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/) 
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks) 


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