AIO THE RAINMAKER; HUNT THE THIMBLE; MATTEO

by Fiona French ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 1978

Africa, old Amsterdam, and Renaissance Florence are the settings of these three ostentatious production numbers--and the sources, respectively, of French's ersatz African, Dutch, and Florentine styles. In one volume, three Dutch children play Hide the Thimble, searching all the rooms of their prosperous home and chasing through the streets--simply, it seems, so that French can display her chunky pastiches representing each location. Matteo is a sculptor and the object of a miffed nobleman's unamusing practical joke in the next book, a flat little artifice that poses stiff, posturing figures in richly colored robes against elaborate architectural backgrounds--but sometimes against patterns and abstractions more reminiscent of modern gift-store dishtowels than of Renaissance Florence. And the remaining volume's Aio, in sleek mask and brilliant robes, pleads piously and melodramatically for rain in pictures so removed from the African spirit they presume to portray that they seem a desecration.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1978

ISBN: 19-27904-2

Page Count: -

Publisher: Oxford Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1978

Categories: CHILDREN'S