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ON ISLAND TIME

Name: ON ISLAND TIME
Author: Hilary Stewart
ISBN: 0-295-07710-8

by Hilary Stewart ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1998

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Perky, abbreviated noodlings on the wonders of island life add up to a short (mostly natural) history of a small place. Stewart has written and illustrated several books on native cultures of the Pacific Northwest. When she decides to build her long-sought dream house, she lights on Quadra, a small island off British Columbia. There she quickly jumps into island culture, signing up for natural history field trips and joining a fetching ritual whereby residents gather on a beach with percussion instruments and “drum up” the full moon. Although she ponders the usual generic island features—the ferry connection, the insular winters—as well as those distinct to Quadra, nature interests her more than the island’s social order. Stewart melds well with islanders (though admittedly, after decades she’s still an outsider), but her relationship with the natural world seems a bit more problematic. She’s hardly an enlightened naturalist, since she constantly interferes with nature. Finding a gang of robins harassing a lone crow (suspected of raiding the robins’ nests for eggs), she intervenes on the crow’s behalf. She does the same for a raccoon hassled by a murder of crows. She also feeds deer, pilfers wildflower seeds, and goes to great lengths to landscape her property, digging up numerous ferns and even trucking in boulders for a rock sculpture. Despite her tendency to impose a fussy, tidy aesthetic on her little piece of wilderness (she insists on clearing “unkempt” areas), she appreciates the natural bounty on her small island and probably gives back more than she takes. The constant attention to her own nest-feathering may strike some as ostentatious, and it makes one wonder if she’s related to that more famous Stewart, Martha. Stewart’s successful embrace of island life is a good primer for anyone wanting to know the upside of a move to the country. (150 illustrations)

Pub Date: July 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-295-07710-8

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Univ. of Washington

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.