Review by Booklist Review
A young girl named Silence, who has been raised by the ancient trees of the forest, is directed to return to her village in order to save all the Yesterdays. Obediently she complies, although she doesn't quite understand her task. Eventually she climbs a nearby mountain where she uncovers some glowing pink stones that mark the graves of village ancestors. Once the area around the stones is cleaned and restored, the markers release memories that save the Yesterdays. This lyrical fable fairly brims with rich language, and while the story's meaning may take a few readings to become clear, the pleasure of Lester's words makes the journey worthwhile. Angel's lush and colorful spreads beautifully complement the text, setting the story in a small African village. Most impressive are his portrayals of personified trees and the magical memories that emanate from the ancestors and their graves. In addition to providing some excellent examples of vivid prose, this story is sure to spark discussion of cultural customs that honor the dead.--Weisman, Kay Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ailing ancient trees with gray, masklike faces bid a mystical girl, Silence, to go to the human world and "save Yesterday." Silence recalls her life as a foundling, banished by humans and raised in the forest. When she enters her old village, she is greeted with suspicion: "Her dark skin shone as bright as the blackness which surrounds the stars and makes them gleam. She was taller now... but they knew who she was." Upon her arrival, sudden nightfall and brilliant beams of orange light shock the village, and Silence feels the earth sobbing with "the sounds of a heart that was not loved." With help from trees and humans alike, Silence clears the ground and reveals a forgotten past, signified by glowing pink stones. Newbery Honor author Lester brings together folktale elements for a tale of planetary healing, and Angel (Sky High) contributes dramatic, feverish paintings of African animals, thatched huts, and supernatural entities. Silence's story is truncated, with details of her past, the trees' history, and human generations stitched together unevenly. Lester laments a bygone Yesterday, yet his tale's complex meanings feel underdeveloped. Ages 4-9. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-Silence, a girl banished from her village and raised by trees in the forest, is sent on a mysterious quest in this poetic allegory. "'We need you to return to your village and save Yesterday,' Wonderboom, the most ancient of the ancient trees, told her. 'All the Yesterdays,' added Gloomy Night, whose limbs were as thick as sorrow." The trees cannot tell the girl how to save Yesterday, nor do they explain why it must be saved. Readers are told just a bit as ThunderSnow, arriving at the edge of the village, "lay [Silence] gently...at the foot of a tree that had been made ill by Yesterday." Other sickened trees are there, too. In the village center, Silence finds "the mountain which loomed like a memory no one could recall." Unhappy to see her, the villagers leave Silence to endure what seems to be an annual powerful nighttime eruption of vivid light from the mountain. Angel's paintings are bold and often dramatic. The torrid light show, the frightened face of the girl in the midst of it, scenes of her encounter with the angry folks in the village of thatched huts, her subsequent race up the mountain, and the uncovering of the first mysterious glowing round stone are compelling. The large, gnarled trees in the forest and on the mountain, humanized in the text, have enormous, elongated human facial features embedded high in their trunks. The fading light of the morning somehow brings Silence an understanding of what she must do, and her heroic unearthing of the Yesterdays brings the villagers up the long-feared mountain in joyful celebration. There are elusive elements and unanswered questions here and many lush analogies in the prose. In a concluding author's note, Lester notes worldwide cultural practices honoring the dead. "It is important to remember the Ancestors, regardless of whose they are." Some readers will find the vague references confusing and the folksy trees and lighted stones just plain odd. But there's appealing adventure here, and the human/natural world intersection, the courageous quest, and the idea of Yesterday's importance raise thought-provoking questions. VERDICT A fine choice for book discussion in classrooms or library programs.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston © Copyright 2016. 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
In this age of automaticity, electronic immediacy, and carpe diem, this book delivers a rare exultation: remember the Ancestors. Silence, a child whom the villagers have cast out into the forest because she tried to climb the mountain to find her dead parents, now lives happily among nurturing trees. When the most ancient of the trees, Wonderboom, tells Silence she must return to the village to "save Yesterday," at first she fails to understand how but reluctantly returns to the hostile village. Morning Star and Sun tell Silence what she must do, and with a scythe, she cuts a path up the mountainside, where the trees help her find glowing stones that she thinks must be her parents. Silence then shows the villagers how to honor their dead, for the Ancestors resent being forgotten. Lester sets this literary folk tale somewhere in Africa, where the villagers wear bright, patterned fabrics, the women wear beautiful head wraps, and all of the characters have dark brown skin. While Lester sprinkles interesting metaphors and similes on nearly every page, Angel paints the story to life with personified trees, an impressive array of topographies, and a girl who will stop at nothing to follow her instincts. When Silence speaks, change happens. A powerful tale that should help children of all ages embrace the fact that dead does not have to mean gone. (Picture book. 4-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
