The Boy Who Looked for Spring

Kindergarten-Grade 2-Young Ben, wanting to know why Winter is dragging on for so long, is led by a white fox to where the pregnant Mother Earth lies in a deep, spellbound sleep. The fox recites a rhyming riddle that the boy must decipher in order to release her from Winter's clutches, and her child, Spring, is born. The plot of this literary fairy tale is weak, providing little suspense or action, and no real sense of climax or resolution. Readers are expected to make the enormous leap from the stark austerity of Ben's family farm, where people and cows are slowly starving, to the magical elements of the forest. The child is said to enter the woods "on a path he had not seen before," but nothing about the place looks unusual. When he sits down to rest, the fox appears and leads him to "a house built of sticks lashed together with vines"-nothing mystical there, either. The language is prosaic throughout. And Diamond's illustrations, while beautiful, do not vary in color, texture, or value. Thus, the transition from reality to fantasy is not reflected in either words or pictures.-Constance A. Mellon, Department of Library & Information Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This book centers on a boy looking for spring who is told by a mystical fox (with a voice "like crackling leaves") that to awaken Mother Earth, there are several tasks he must accomplish. He is successful at each, and so Mother Earth gives birth to her child, Spring. Though his quest takes place "a long time ago," the boy we read about appears contemporary by fairytale standards. The words that come out of his mouth--in song form--do not jibe with his otherwise plain speech. And this inconsistency is characteristic of the overall problem here: the timelessness for which the tale seems to strive and the book's modern-day look and sound never quite reconcile. Moreover, Fleischman's lengthy text--with its rather unconvincing mix of realism and old-time sorcery--soon becomes tedious and heavy-handed. Understated to the point of banality, Diamond's artwork is warm with spring colors, but no movement meets the eye. Since there is little action to illustrate, the pictures function more as (occasionally attractive) portraiture, though the boy looks disturbingly sad throughout and Mother Earth resembles a '60s flower child. A limp, disappointing work. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.