Day: January 28, 2011

Harry & Hopper

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Harry & Hopper by Margaret Wild and Freya Blackwood

Harry got Hopper when he was a jumpy puppy.  He taught him to sit, stay and play ball.  The two of them were inseparable.  Hopper even slept with Harry, moving from the bottom of the bed to the top over the course of the night.   But then Harry came home from school and Hopper wasn’t there.  His father broke the news of the accident gently to Harry, explaining that Hopper had died.  Harry couldn’t sleep in the bed he shared with Hopper, so he started sleeping on the couch instead.  At school, Harry couldn’t tell anyone about what had happened.  That night, Harry was awoken from sleeping on the couch by a dog leaping by the window.  It was Hopper!  The two of them spent the night together playing.  The same thing happened night after night, but Hopper was getting less solid and less warm.  Eventually, Harry had to say goodbye to Hopper.

This book should come with a box of tissues.  Sniffle.  Wild depicts the bond between boy and dog with a clarity that makes it very tangible and real.  The loss comes quickly and without prelude, jarring the reader.  As Harry moves through his grief, the return of Hopper brings that process into a similarly tangible state.  The slow disappearance of Hopper over the nights, depicts the acceptance of loss.  Harry’s grief never comes to full resolution, something that is particularly beautiful about this book and its writing. 

This book won the Kate Greenaway medal for its illustrations, and rightly so!  Blackwood’s illustrations are done in laser print on watercolor paper with watercolor, gouache and charcoal.  They have a charm to them that is emphasized by the use of lines to slow motion.  Additionally, the shadows that appear with the grief add to the darker feeling of that section of the book.  Through it all, there is a warm light in the darkness, often provided by Harry and Hopper themselves. 

A beautiful book of loss and grief, this book deserves a spot in libraries where it is sure to find an audience.  Perhaps offer a Kleenex as a bookmark upon check out.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy provided by Feiwel and Friends.

Check out a gallery of the illustration on the Guardian website.

Words in the Dust

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Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

This is the wrenching tale of Zulaikah, an Afghani girl who lives with a cleft palate that has earned her the nickname of Donkeyface from the bullies in her neighborhood.  It is a modern story, set after the defeat of the Taliban.  Zulaikah lives with a harsh taskmaster of a stepmother, her beloved older sister, and two younger brothers.  Despite her face, she is the one her stepmother sends to the  market for supplies, giving the other children a chance to mock her.  With the Americans in town, Zulaikah is offered the chance to have her face repaired.  She also meets Meena, an old friend of her late mother who offers to teach her to read.  These are immense opportunities for her, but will she be allowed to take advantage of them?

Reedy is a debut author  who served in Afghanistan with the National Guard.  Zulaikah’s story is based on a girl he met in Afghanistan.  Reedy has created a marvelous lens for readers to better understand Afghanistan, its culture and its people.  The day-to-day life shown here is so very different from our own, that one never forgets that this is a different country.  Yet Zulaikah’s hopes and dreams are universal.  So this book manages to offer a view of a foreign country at the same time it is showing our united humanity.

Zulaikah is a heroine who has seen unthinkable things, lives with a very visible disability, and yet remains hopeful about the future.  She is a girl living in a culture that devalues women and girls, and while she searches for someone to teach her to read, she is not straining against the culture she is a part of.  That is a large part of what makes this book so successful.  This is a girl who is a product of her family and culture, yet radiant with inner beauty and always hope.

This is a particularly timely book that offers a perspective of modern Afghanistan.  It also offers a very human character who will have you viewing news of Afghanistan differently, now with a spirited girl to inspire understanding.  Appropriate for ages 11-13.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

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