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Synopsis
This poetic tribute invites readers to experience the blazing light, cutting wind, endless sky, piercing cold, and extraordinary beauty of the prairie. It's a land of extremes, as the lyrical text and illustrations make clear, that inspires extreme devotion from its hardy inhabitants. Full color.
Children's Literature
Addressing the reader in free verse questions which frame a rhymed stanza, an insider lists the ways that a stranger can't possibly know what he knows about the prairie: endless wind, sun, sky messages, grass that you can hear, and stunning cold. A young boy is pictured in realistic, detailed prairie settings in various seasons playing, biking, hanging around with friends, or walking down a streambed. Abruptly, the voice switches to a middle-aged man who may be the boy grown older, and italicized print reaches out to mend the narrator's rift with the reader-you can't know me unless some part of you has known this same blazing sun. These two Canadians obviously love Saskatchewan and know their prairies first-hand. Midwesterners will identify with the boy's interpretation of the land's harsh beauty while others may begin to understand how beautiful it can be. Ripplinger's acrylic paintings are gloriously evocative and would give children studying the Dust Bowl years or books such as Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah Plain and Tall a powerful feeling for the setting. 1998 (orig.