Market day A story told with folk art

Lois Ehlert

Book - 2000

On market day, a farm family experiences all the fun and excitement of going to and from the farmers' market.

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Subjects
Genres
Stories in rhyme
Picture books
Published
San Diego : Harcourt Brace 2000.
Language
English
Main Author
Lois Ehlert (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
unpaged : col. ill. ; 26 cm
ISBN
9780613538336
9780152021580
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Ages 3^-7. The rhymes are simple and easy: "Pull up some carrots. / Shake off the dirt. / Pack the tomatoes. / Tuck in your shirt." It's time for the farmers' market; the truck is loaded with produce. We drive past birds and fishes, sheep and snakes, and see an oxcart ferrying a very large watermelon and a corn-bearing basket on an origami-inspired motorbike. At the market, people buy and sell, work and play, until they return home, newly laden with good things to eat. All of the brilliantly colored and arranged images are created from pieces of folk art from Africa, China, and South America, which are identified in a pictorial key at the back. Ehlert has put her many talents to use here, creating coherent and eye-filling tableaux from a wide variety of articles and materials. Don't miss the Mexican tin sun shining on the top-heavy produce truck near gamboling Colombian textile sheep, or the fabulous African blue-beaded ox with a mouth full of Mexican papier-machecarrots. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Ehlert (Hands) parades her personal collection of folk art, hailing from countries as diverse as Guatemala, Indonesia and Africa, across crisply designed pages in this exuberant picture book about the vendors and shoppers at a bustling open-air market. A brief, rhyming text describes a family's preparations for a day selling their wares at the local market ("Pull up some carrots./ Shake off the dirt./ Pack the tomatoes./ Tuck in your shirt"). Ehlert's arresting artwork gives this book a distinct south-of-the-border spice: she arranges photographs of dolls, animals, fruit and vegetablesDhand-crafted from such materials as carved, painted wood, pounded tin and woven, dyed fibersDin bright, busy collages on bold, often quilted backgrounds. Each of the unique objects within a scene inspires a sense of wonderment and invites closer inspection. Via art and story, kids are introduced to some of the intrinsic beauty of exotic places like Colombia, Mexico and Peru. A spectacular, tightly arranged two-page photo-catalogue at book's end entitled "Where did they come from? What are they made of?" will satisfy readers' curiosity about the composition and origins of the featured artifacts. Ehlert has indulged her passion for Latin American lore and culture before, notably in Cuckoo/Cuc# and Moon Rope, but readers will surely be glad she has revisited this terrain. Ages 3-7. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 4-Ever-innovative Ehlert enlists brief, rhyming text and photographed folk art to illustrate the preparation for and journey to market to sell vegetables. Jewel-toned dolls, baskets, flowers, and toys from the Americas, Africa, China, and Indonesia tempt readers to touch the items to try to experience the mix of textures. Young children will be captivated by the rhythm and colors, while older students will be inspired by the glorious array of handmade objects. A concluding picture dictionary of the exhibited folk art identifies each piece by materials and country of origin. A festive outing, with a gorgeous assortment of objects in vivid, eye-catching colors.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA (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

A day at a farmers' market is told from the merchant's perspective. The very young will enjoy the spare, simple rhymes (Pull up some carrots. Shake off the dirt. Pack the tomatoes. Tuck in your shirt); all ages will appreciate the illustrations, comprising images of folk art, primitive art, and textiles from around the world. An annotated inventory of the featured items is included. 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

Once again Ehlert (Top Cat, 1998, etc.) has created a vibrant and fascinating picture book by arranging and photographing pieces of folk art from her collection, this time against backdrops of Guatemalan and Colombian textiles. Carved and painted wooden chickens perch in front of a backdrop of appliquÉd chickens, as the family feeds them corn before packing up the produce to take to market. In a whimsically painted clay truck, they go "past the fish and frogs that swim near the bridge / and past the sheep that graze on the ridge." Among others going to market are mice dolls from Indonesia on an African cycle made of discarded metal containers, wire, bike chain, rubber, and plastic. A wooden jaguar passes by with a tomato and later a carrot in its mouth, and a clay possum pulls a cart holding a single papier-mâchÉ turnip. Part of the pleasure of the book is in scrutinizing the ingenious details of the folk art, and the way they've been combined to tell the story. There's an element of childlike play in this, reminiscent of the way children create and act out stories by combining toys of various origins and disparate sizes, and through the power of imagination create a world that is entirely their own. Ehlert has created a similarly captivating world within these pages. A two-paged catalogue of artifacts, their composition, and their origins completes the picture. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.