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Summary
Summary
Did you know that sharp spines and spikes aren't the only things protecting the caterpillar of Postman butterfly? Its bright colors also warn predators of dangerous poison! Now young naturalists can uncover all of the bizarre and beguiling aspects of brilliant butterflies&mdashfrom development to defense to diversity&mdashin this beautiful new picture book that explodes with six vibrant pops. Accompanied by a wall-mountable display case, featuring a glittery butterfly!
Author Notes
A Harvard University graduate, e e cummings lived in Greenwich Village and spent his summers on a farm in New Hampshire. He was born on October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While working for the American Red Cross in France in 1917, cummings was mistakenly imprisoned for several months. This experience resulted in the publication of a novel, The Enormous Room (1922). Although he went on to write other prose, it is for his poetry that he is best known. He also published plays, wrote a ballet, and was a respected painter. He was awarded many honors for his work, including the 1958 Bollingen Prize for poetry and the National Book Award in 1955.
Although he used many techniques to stress his meaning, he wrote about the traditional subjects of love, nature, and the corrupting influence of materialism. cummings delivered lectures while at Harvard in 1952; in that same year, he was awarded an honorary seat as a guest professor. He also wrote the delightful commentaries for the 50 photographs in Adventures in Value by his wife, Marion Morehouse, a fine and sensitive photographer
cummings died of a stroke on September 3, 1962, at the age of 67 in North Conway, New Hampshire at the Memorial Hospital. His cremated remains were buried in Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory in Boston.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Inspired by cummings's poem, which is presented in its entirety at the beginning of this beguiling book, Raschka's story echoes and expands on its themes of families and belonging. Delicate tiny vignettes decorate the text pages, which face full-page illustrations. Loose, geometric lines, skewed multiple perspectives, and childlike representations of people characterize these intricate, energetic watercolors. The story takes the little tree from his faraway forest home, via a little truck and a little train, "past the farms and little towns to the little big city," where he is purchased by a loving little family. In an engaging sideline, Santa appears in small scenes pulling on his boots, skiing, listening to music, and drinking a glass of wine at a caf?. Final pictures reinforce the connection between the poem and the story. Visually, and as a simple, sweetly old-fashioned read-aloud, Little Tree embodies the warm sense of love and belonging that for many defines the true meaning of Christmas.-S. P. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this exquisite riff on Cummings's classic poem, Raschka uses lyrical cadence and gentle repetition to trace the journey of a tree who dreams of Christmas splendor from country obscurity to city stardom ("The little elevator carried the little family and the little tree up, up, up to the little family's little home"). The patchwork watercolors, an artful arrangement of line and color and framed in geometric shapes that echo the triangular tree, resemble modernistic stained glass; subtle spot illustrations hint at Santa's role in fulfilling the tree's wish. All ages. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Inspired by a cummings poem, RaschkaÆs story-poem expands the narrative, tracing a little tree from a little forest to a little city sidewalk to the little apartment where it is decorated by a little family. The large format allows for simultaneous stories: on the left page vignettes show secondary characters not mentioned in the text, while a full-page illustration on the right displays the main action. On the whole, however, the offering is a littleàtwee. From HORN BOOK Spring 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The little fir tree goes to town: Cummings's poem about a Christmas tree serves as the inspiration for a little story about a little fir tree who wants nothing so much as to find "a new life, his dream life, in a far, far away place." The full poem appears on one page, to be followed by Raschka's (Waffle, p. 504, etc.) narrative expansion upon it. In muted green-and-yellow illustrations reminiscent of Chagall stained-glass windows, readers see a small gent who looks a lot like Santa Claus. He loads the little tree onto a flatbed (we are spared the cutting-down) to take it to the city, where a "little boy, a little girl, a little mother and father and their little dog walked up and down the little streets of the little big city, looking and looking for their own special, just right, one and only, perfect little tree." If the substance of the story comes from Cummings, its delivery comes straight from Margaret Wise Brown, with loads of repetition and an almost hypnotic rhythm. Hand-drawn panels are packed with detail in what seems to be an almost Cubist attempt to portray every aspect of the city in one fell swoop. The human figures are uncomplicated and childlike, befitting this simple, winning story about how this one little tree finds "his own special place in the world, a place that was waiting for him all his life." (Picture book. 3-8)
Booklist Review
Ages 5-9. Inspired by the E. E. Cummings poem (which appears on the first page of the book), Raschka offers a quietly moving story about a little tree that dreams of becoming a Christmas tree. Employing the word little like a mantra, the spare text charts the tree's odyssey from a hill in the forest to an apartment in the city--from dream to fulfillment. The triangular shape of the tree is the anchor for the geometric artwork facing the text, which becomes increasingly narrative in content as the story approaches its climax. Meanwhile, small illustrations, surrounded by white space, act as visual grace notes to the text pages and introduce a Santa Claus figure who, though never mentioned in the text, gradually joins the action, contributing a bit of whimsy. The final picture shows the joyful tree standing in a window for everyone to see. A pleasant little story about "a perfect little tree." --Michael Cart