PreSchool-Grade 1–Despite the pairing of formidable talents, this book will likely have a limited audience. The purposeful plot is driven by its message: a scarecrow that experiences the freedom of a wind-blown night decides to go back to his post (literally) after witnessing the farm boy on his knees, praying for the straw man’s success in guarding the crops. There is little action, with the exception of for the protagonist breezing along past a dimly lit tractor, weathered barn, and cows at rest. Each of Ibatoulline’s gouache and watercolor scenes is technically brilliant and atmospheric, but there’s a disconnect with the sequencing and passage of time. Opening pages depict the corn silhouetted against a sky that may be pink at the horizon and hazy blue on the upper borders of the spreads (twilight?). Subsequent spreads are a mixture of deeper blues, then a return to pink light, a misty gray, rose again, and after all almost turquoise; the effect is disconcerting. The sentimentality climaxes when the scarecrow peers through the darkness into the boy’s bedroom, which is drenched in an orange glow. Yolen’s unremarkable poetry reads: The scarecrow heard/With painted ears,/And wept a pail/Of painted tears. Adults may find this story of faith and duty uplifting, but kids will prefer the nocturnal farm adventures found in Bill Martin and John Archambault’s Barn Dance! (Holt, 1986).–Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
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