Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-7. Van Allsburg once again probes the nature of reality in this handsome work. It is almost autumn when Farmer Bailey hits an oddly dressed man with his car. The leather-clad stranger cannot talk, so Bailey takes him home telling his wife that the man must be some sort of a hermit. Soon the whole family becomes fond of him. Slowly, in flashes, the man's memory begins to return. He stares at the geese flying south and notices a chill wind when he blows on his soup. Meanwhile, Farmer Bailey is perplexed at the continuing warm weather. Will autumn never come? One day, the stranger is disturbed when he looks at the green trees; they seem so ugly to him. His feelings grow until he blows on one of the leaves. That night he departs and afterward the air turns cold, and the leaves change color. From then on each autumn a message comes etched in frost on the windowpanes ``See you next year.'' The question of the stranger's identity is not especially compelling, and the ending will leave some children confused. However, the full-color pictures (which have a very different look from The Polar Express) are riveting. Sturdy figures and easily visible brush strokes give the pictures a boldness while the skillful use of light and shadow provides vibrancy. Some of the tension lacking in the story's text are perfectly visible in the detailed art. Not perfect, but still arresting. IC. [OCLC] 86-15235
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Farmer Bailey thinks he's hit a deer while driving his truck, but in the middle of the road lies a man, an enigmatic stranger. He goes home with Farmer Bailey, his memory apparently gone. Weeks pass at the Bailey farm; the stranger seems happy to be around them, and helps with the harvest. Oddly, while trees to the north of the farm turn red and gold with the arrival of fall, Bailey's land seems to be in a state of perpetual summer. One day, the stranger sees geese flying south and knows that he, too, must leave. Not long after that, the leaves at the farm change color and the air turns cool. And every year since, summer lasts a week longer at the Bailey farm than anywhere else. Van Allsburg's story is strangely melancholy, and his straightforward writng is uncannily dry, in contrast to the vivid green and golden landscapes of his paintings. The mood and suspense in this book make it compellinga chance to see the artist take a slight incident and create a truly mysterious event. (All ages (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4The Stranger is a down-homey modern myth about the phenomenon of Indian Summer, but the opening owes less to the folktale than to The Twilight Zone. Farmer Bailey, rapt on an end-of-summer day in his 1940s pickup, suddenly hits something: the next page shows a young man's body, dramatically foreshortened and stretched out at eye-level in the evening shadows. The terror-stricken victim quickly recovers but has lost both speech and memory. Invited to stay with the farmer, his wife, and little girl, he spends idyllic days with them while autumn's advance is unaccountably delayed. The text scatters clues to the stranger's identity (Jack Frost); but the moment of recognition is cleverly given over to the electrifying illustration alone. Characteristically, the bold simplifications of Van Allsburg's warm pastels look back to American regionalist paintings of the 1930s and '40sespecially to Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. The story is too low-keyed for most children, although several compositions provide suspense with their unorthodox points-of-view, out-of-frame action, and play with effects of light. Here the interweaving of fantasy and reality is more complex than in Van Allsburg's earlier books, and the effects more subtle; but the surface pleasures of color and form are still enticing. Patricia Dooley, formerly at Drexel University, Phila . (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Another enigmatic fantasy from a two-time Caldecott winner. Farmer Bailey accidentally runs down a leather-clad man who does not speak and seems to have amnesia. Borrowing clothes, the stranger helps with end-of-summer chores. He has an affinity for wild things, especially migrating birds. Time passes, but summer, surprisingly, lingers. The stranger blows on a leaf--memory stirs as it turns red; he dons his leather garb and disappears, leaving a message on the now-frosty pane: ""See you next fall."" Jack Frost, probably; perhaps also an allegory about succor, apparent witlessness, inappropriate taming of nature, or talents; more important, a vehicle for Van Alisburg's always-mesmerizing full-color illustrations. This time his sculptural forms inhabit a pastoral New England landscape, illuminated by rays of the late afternoon sun. Less of a tour de force in three-dimensional design than Polar Express, with its broad, darkly dramatic compositions, but this will still be welcomed by the artist's many fans. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
