Maudie and the Green Children
by Adrian Mitchell, illustrated by Sigune Hamann
"I love Maudie too and the drawings by Sigune Hamann are brilliant - they have the
animal cheek (in all senses) of kids. Maybe the best illustrations I've seen for years
and years. Comparable with Balthus doing Wuthering Heights. (Strange as that may sound).
" -- John Berger, author of Ways of Seeing.
"...Thank you for sharing the Maudie book with me. You were right it is a delightful book and I
loved it." -- Karen Cushman, the author of The Midwife's Apprentice.
"This story is a discovery that everyone -- child and adult -- should make as soon as possible.
It is one of those books that will never completely leave your mind. Take the message to heart
and you just might become a better person. " -- Lisa DuMond
An Enchating Tale
"Maudie and the Green children is an enchanting old English country tale retold by Adrian Mitchell.
Written from the viewpoint of Maudie recounting her experiences as a young child, the story centres on two green
children from a distant land who suddenly appear in the wolf-pit.
Maudie leads them back to her village where they are reviled by the community.
Her simple description of the experiences of the green children as they endure life in their new world results in
a moving parable illuminating society's often hostile response to the outsider. Maudie and the Green Children is
targeted at ages five to nine." -- The Leader Post, Regina, SK. July 1996
" This retelling of an old Suffolk country tale is invested with that authentic feeling for magic
which fine poets often possess. It is the story of a warm-hearted, simple village girl who befriends,
protects and grows to love the strange, green children who come into her life. The easy power of Adrian
Mitchell's language, the cadences of the East Anglian speech which he captures without effort, and the
startling watercolours of the illustrations make this a small miracle of a book for older, as well as
younger children." -- By Jack Ousbey. Carousel the Guide to Children's Books. Winter 1996.
Echoing green
"Suffolk dialect and a once-upon-a-time that's 16th-century going on 20th give Adrian Mitchell's
Maudie and the Green Children an echoing timbre.
Maudie Hessett is said to be simple. but it's she rather than the other villagers who finds and
welcomes the two children from over the underground river in Merllin Land; and it's she who protects
them and yearns for them when they are gone.
Sigune Hamann illustrates this retelling of a folk tale in a pointy style that owes quite a bit to
Edward Lear, which is appropriate in that the story carries on with an air of limerick consequentiality.
Cunningly, conversationally, we are told about prejudices and petty tyrannies, lack of imagination and
false religion. The character of Maudie gradually reveals itself to herself, and we are left with a sense
of self-discovery." -- By William Feaver. Times (London) Educational Supplement. July 5, 1996
When a picture is worth a thousand words
"What a switch to Maudie and the Green Children. "My name it is Maudie Hessett. My mam is a widow woman,
keeps pigs. We live right here in Woolpit," our 15th-century narrator tells us in Adrian Mitchell's rendition
of an old English folktale that is an allegory for any society in any era.
Sigune Hamann's watercolors capture the spare lines of a simpler time and strengthen the feeling of isolation
by making the Green Children an ethereal, unreal green that makes us know they will never take on the local colouring.
Her attention to line can suggest a lively party with the elongated curve of a dining table or a power struggle
with the Priest's upraised arm and the Green Girl's wistful tilt of the head as she dreams of the peacful green
hills of Merllin Land, the land she left behind." -- By Paula Hart. The Vancouver Sun, February 8, 1997 |
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