DISCOVERY

THE QUEST FOR THE GREAT SOUTH LAND

by Miriam Estensen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1999

Brodsky (for adults, On Grief and Reason, 1996, etc.) challenges the notion that a place--any place--can be truly ""discovered"" by humans, as if willed into being by their intents and designs. His poem is also, more quietly, a promise of wonder that the world holds in wait for those open to its charms. The book has a Genesis-like, Big-Bang beginning, when ""there were just waves/hammering at the obstacles."" Clouds sent down rain, fish came, birds alighted on the new land, ""yet they were just pilgrims, and very few/of them evolved into settlers."" By the time Europeans arrived, America was an old place. ""They stepped ashore and they rode across/this land of milk and honey,/and they settled in with their many laws,/their cities, their farms, their money."" Although this is a picture book, with collage artwork from Radunsky that is fluent in its rude edges and construction-paper color, the text claims readers' heed as it signals a gracious, elemental style: ""When you are a continent, you don't mince/words and don't crave attention.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999

ISBN: ---

Page Count: 288

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999

Categories: NONFICTION