Once Upon a Lily Pad: Froggy Love in Monet's Garden
Living among the water lilies of Monet's country home, frogs Hector and Henriette and their tadpoles happily "pose" for the bearded artist who paints their pond each day. First-time author Sweeny sets up a rivalry between the frogs and a "Monsieur Crow" who thinks that it is he who is being immortalized on canvas; the crow is finally disillusioned one day when he "swooped down and began snapping up tadpoles in his sharp pointed bill.... All at once the old painter sent a stone flying across the pond." In spite of such ecodrama, however, this tale proves anticlimactic; it simply tapers off when "one spring, the old painter did not appear." Fain's (Handsigns) pointillistic paintings capture neither the spirit nor the subtleties of impressionism (compare Bijou le Tord's radiant A Blue Butterfly, also set in Giverny; Children's Forecasts, Sept. 18). Fain's stippled illustrations offer a sharp focus on the famous pond, which is depicted in a tart fuchsia-and-aqua palette. Readers can sample Monet's own take on his pond via a three-page gatefold reproduction of a 1920-1921 painting from the Water Lilies series. Ages 2-6.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.