TATTIE'S RIVER JOURNEY

by Shirley Rousseau Murphy ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 23, 1983

A young woman named Tattie lived alone by the river, and she was as beautiful as the star-flung night."" But with no further poetical flights, the deliberately naive story tells how Tattie brings her cow and chickens inside when a hard rain floods the barn, and how the higher and higher waters shake her house loose and send it ""bobbing and dipping across the flooded land."" As the rain continues Tattie pulls a dog out of the water, then pulls in a baby on a board, and finally rescues a young man--""the homeliest young man Tattle had ever seen, but his eyes were bright and kind."" At last the house comes to rest on a hill between two fences, but when the waters recede they find that the hill is a curving bridge over the river. Not to worry: travelers crossing the bridge simply pass through the front and back doors of the house. Tattle and her young man marry, of course, build an upstairs on the house, and make their living downstairs feeding the travelers and tending their horses. ""It was a grand life indeed""--hardly the proper adjective, but never mind. The general impression is one of quaintness, which is reinforced by de Paola's prim, folk-like illustrations.

Pub Date: May 23, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1983

Categories: CHILDREN'S