A lyrical meditation on the scientific and philosophical meaning to be found in one short stretch of Delaware coastline. This may be Ackerman's first book, but she is no novice to the art of nature writing. ``The way in to a new landscape is to pull at a single thread,'' she begins, and with quiet, acute observation and an admirable economy of style, she pulls her reader after her. The threads form a single fabric, interweaving the life of the town of Lewes with the past and future of the beaches and marshes that surround it. The impact of the man-made harbor is felt by the tiniest micro-organisms swarming in the sand. The mud flats exposed at low tide teem with life that Ackerman makes us see: razor clams and ribbon worms, mud snails and sanderlings, diatoms and rotifers. The rhythms here are ancient and mysterious, explained with reverence and some awe. The migrating red knot pauses here on its way to Arctic breeding grounds just in time to gorge on the millions of horseshoe crab eggs that have been laid under the wet sand at the spring tide. But not all of the fabric is original; this ecosystem, like most in our ever-shrinking world, has become a patchwork of native species and aggressive immigrants from the old world to the new. Nature is not the equilibrium we would like it to be—change is the only constant, and ``the wonder is that there is order or structure at all, likenesses or rules, universals on a giant scale.'' Ackerman is entranced by ``the thunder-suck of waves'' near her seaside home, and her careful, ingenuous exploration of biology and history makes the most landlocked reader appreciate it too. Poetic, precise, intelligent, thoughtful. A lovely book.
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-84924-3
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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