Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4, younger for reading aloud. In this picture book for older children, bespectacled young Nicky has to spend the summer with his grandmother while his father works long hours at the plant. He's not happy: Grandma doesn't have a TV, and her cottage is full of books, drawings pinned to the walls, and fishing tackle. But when an old raft covered with sketches of animals drifts to the dock near Grandma's cottage, Nicky is intrigued. Grandma teaches him to pole up the river and drift back down. They rig a tent, Nicky sleeps on the raft on hot nights, and Grandma shows him her favorite swimming place. But most of all, Nicky gives himself over to the fascination of the animals that he sees along the banks and swimming alongside the raft: turtles, herons, foxes, otters, and raccoons. Finally, Nicky discovers the urge to sketch them. His rescue of a fawn allows him, at summer's end, to add his own drawing to the floor of the raft. The text floats above the double-spread illustrations that softly and carefully radiate natural details, making the images seem like wisps of myth and memory. The sunlight on the dock and in Grandma's cottage and the moonlight and dawn on the river are rendered with particular grace, while the figures of the animals are lively and direct. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Nicky's summer vacation in the Wisconsin woods fills up with quiet adventures when he discovers a raft covered with drawings of wild animals. PW's starred review praised the "exquisitely rendered" pastel drawings that "bathe the images in the bewitching glow of a riverfront dawn and dusk." Ages 6-up. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-This dazzling picture book is an artistic triumph. LaMarche introduces young readers to a visually resplendent, magical world that is nevertheless so real they can almost touch it. Nicky, a sweet, sullen little boy from a middle-class urban household, feels hurt and abandoned when his father deposits him at his grandmother's home in the woods for the summer. "Dust rose up behind our car as it disappeared into the pines," Nicky mourns to himself in the story's opening paragraphs, looking for all the world like a puppy put out in the middle of nowhere. After finding a decorated raft adrift in the nearby river, the child and his artist grandmother pass sun-drenched days floating on it. He credits the raft with helping him befriend a growing menagerie of preternaturally tame woodland creatures, all of which he incorporates into a burgeoning passion for drawing and painting of his own. Nicky's descriptive first-person narration supports the radiant, expressive illustrations that are the book's greatest strength; his eyes and face communicate an array of instantly recognizable childhood feelings. LaMarche imbues the beauty and wonder of nature with an otherworldly glow that leaves the river and woods gilt and gleaming, even after nightfall. Readers who see this enchanted forest through Nicky's eyes will almost certainly recognize it again for themselves in summers to come.-Catherine T. Quattlebaum, Bartram Trail Regional Library System, Washington, GA (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 Horn Book Review
Nicky is reluctant to spend the summer at Grandma's riverside cabin, but when he finds an old raft in the reeds, his raft trips along the river help him embrace the beauty of wildlife, his grandmother's wisdom, and his own interest in drawing. Elements of the story feel contrived, especially the animals' idealized familiarity with Nicky, but the luminous illustrations evoke a magical aura. From HORN BOOK Fall 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
LaMarche (Little Oh, 1997) builds on childhood memories for this magical tale of artistic awakening. Young Nicky's resentment at having to spend all summer out in the country with Grandma changes to wonder when he finds a raft on the nearby river--a raft that is not only decorated with mysterious animal portraits, but seems, somehow, to attract wildlife. The author depicts his spectacled youngster floating through soft focus but exquisitely realistic natural scenes, sometimes alone, sometimes with Grandma, accompanied by flights of accurately rendered songbirds and other forest or river creatures seemingly as curious about--and as unafraid of him as he of them. At summer's end, he paints a picture of his own on the raft, after rescuing a fawn trapped on a muddy bank, and admits that he's become, like Grandma, a "river rat." The text's dreamy pace reflects both the river's gently rippling serenity and Nicky's deepening appreciation for the natural marvels he witnesses. It's an eyefilling, and soulfilling, idyll. (Picture book. 911) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
