The Hero Beowulf
Grade 4-6–A great green monster, cool Viking gear, and powerful, concise language mark this book, which should be calledBeowulf 1A, since it tells only half of Part One of the poem. Straightening out the epic's chronology, Kimmel begins with Beowulf's youthful exploits as a troll- and serpent-slayer (but not as a marathon swimmer, a boast he defends in the poem). Then the telling moves "across the sea" (a map would be helpful) to Heorot, where Grendel is wreaking havoc. Beowulf disarms to fight fairly with the monster, and after a fierce struggle literally dis-arms him. Grendel sinks, dying, into the muck, and the Danes rejoice: end of tale. Manic mothers are all too common, and maybe too scary: Grendel's Mom's scene is cut, and the dragon that Beowulf dies killing, 50 years later, is not even a shadow on the story. Nor are there any Christian references, which pepper the poem (but probably not the legend it enshrined). Fisher's large-scale compositions, easily visible across a reading group, feature bright tones for sails, shields, and jerkins bracketed by sky and sea (or by a matte gold ground). Grendel is a pustular jade. Kimmel approaches the stylistic markers of the poem too timidly: "swan-road" would be livelier than "the sea," and "sinews snapped and bone-joints burst" better than "Grendel's shoulder burst." But let's hope that a Part Two from these collaborators will provide a chance to paint a dragon and to throw in litotes or kenning.–Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.