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Summary
Summary
When four-year-old Janie's father goes off to war, the rest of the family moves to the grandparents' on the Chesapeake Bay, where Janie learns a secret of the world which helps her understand her father's long absence.
Author Notes
Jane Yolen was born February 11, 1939 in New York City. She received a bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1960 and a master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. After college, she became an editor in New York City and wrote during her lunch break. She sold her first children's book, Pirates in Petticoats, at the age of 22. Since then, she has written over 300 books for children, young adults, and adults.
Her other works include the Emperor and the Kite, Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and The Devil's Arithmetic. She has won numerous awards including the Kerlan Award, the Regina Medal, the Keene State Children's Literature Award, the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Golden Kite Award, the Jewish Book Award, the World Fantasy Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-- Yolen once again demonstrates her unique ability to use a small incident to reveal a profound idea. When her father leaves port on a ship departing for the war, four-year-old Janie relates the experience from a child's point of view. A few days later while wading along the shore, her older cousin Michael points to ships in the distance also bound for the fighting. Janie is sure her father left on a big boat, not a speck on the horizon. Michael demonstrates the concept of linear perspective by running off down the beach. Several years later her father comes home and tells her how big she has grown, and it is at this poignant moment that Janie comes to understand the world's secrets. The cover of the book, reminiscent of the work of Jessie Wilcox Smith, is full of light and sweetness. The children's stances throughout capture the innocence and wonder of childhood. Baker's watercolors are a particularly effective medium whether depicting landscapes or family scenes to capture the tender mood of this memorable vignette. An affecting piece without an extraneous word and one that is particularly timely today. --Phyllis G. Sidorsky, National Cathedral School, Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The highly prolific Yolen ( Owl Moon ; Elfabet ) here relates a bittersweet memory from an important period in her childhood: the two years during which her father was away at war. She recalls the fun she and her cousin Michael had when the family piled into the car to go see Daddy's ship off at the docks--the children ate ice cream cones, but Mama ``cried all the way home.'' At the beach the next day Janie and Michael see some tiny spots on the horizon. Michael tells her that they are ships, but Janie doesn't believe him. (The specks are so small, she says, and her daddy's ship was so big. . . .) Five-year-old Michael teaches her a ``secret of the world''--as he moves further away from her, he gets smaller. When father returns and tells his daughter that she is ``lots bigger than I remembered,'' Janie explains, ``Now you are here, so I am big.'' This timely, nostalgic story is told with simple grace, and Janie's thoughts and experiences are believably childlike. Baker's ( The Third-Story Cat ) watercolors are poignant, evocative and contain just the right amount of sentimentality. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
A gentle story of the growth of a little girl while her father is away at war. Delicate watercolors enhance the affectionate story. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In a gracefully cadenced text with telling echoes of ideas and images, an apparently autobiographical story: when Jane is four, she and her family see Daddy off on a crowded troopship to WW II; only Mama cries. Soon after, on a forbidden trip to wade in the nearby Chesapeake, Jane's five-year-old cousin Michael demonstrates that the small-looking ships they see are actually big, like Daddy's--Michael moves away while Jane compares his size to her own hand. Two years later, Daddy comes home. ""Everyone cried, except Mama,"" and Janie tells him why she seems bigger: "". . .you were so far away, Daddy. When you are far away, everything is smaller. But now you are here, so I am big."" In her best work to date, Baker's watercolors capture the nuances of affection, loss, puzzlement, and jubilation in her characters' expressions and stance, echoing the sorrow of war's partings in the dramatic dark areas of her careful compositions, nicely contrasted with summer's blues and greens. A poignant, beautifully wrought book. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 4-8. Like Cecil's Story [BKL Ja 1 91], this is a quietly emotional picture book about a child who watches her father go off to war and longs for his return. Yolen's plain, poetic text is autobiographical: Janie is four years old and the time is World War II. The book begins with good-byes, kisses, and flag-waving as the troopship leaves. The next day, in a game at the beach, Janie's older cousin Michael explains to her why the distant ships on the horizon look so small--it's because they're so far away. And two years later, when her father returns and tells her she's much bigger than he remembered, she whispers Michael's secret in his ear: "That's because you were / so far away, Daddy. / When you are far away, / everything is smaller. / But now you are here, / so I am big." Baker's exquisite watercolors express what the words mean but leave largely unspoken: the sadness beneath the determined gaiety, the memory of separation within the circle of the family embrace. Some pictures stretch out with a wide view connecting sea and sky and countryside; some focus close up on family members holding each other tight. Adults who remember the time will feel the truth of the experience; so will today's kids who have come to know about parting and reunion in wartime. ~--Hazel ~Rochman
