A Symphony for the Sheep
Grade 1-3?Set in Ireland, this poetic story follows the steps by which a sheep's woolly coat is transformed into cloth and sweaters. Similar to Tomie dePaola's Charlie Needs a Cloak (S&S;, 1973), the narrative begins with a tribute to the sheep and goes on to the work of shearing, carding and spinning, weaving, and knitting. "Now the shearer comes around/to shave away their curly coats/and take the greasy wool to town/for use by nimble Ulster folk." Azarian's hand-colored woodcuts set strong figures of sheep and old-fashioned peasant folk in broad double-spread views. Periodic refrains, which reappear as an end poem, are each attractively framed in pictorial motifs. There's a rustic charm here, suggesting that the age-old process is quaint, a thing of long ago and far away. Some lines will baffle children either for pronunciation ("the hills of Derryveagh") or meaning ("...as rain fills the sky/Irish wit remains dry!"). The author includes suggestions for choral reading, adding a practicality to the book. This title is visually appealing, compensating somewhat for the esoteric pastiche of information.?Margaret Bush, Simmons College, BostonCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.