BY A BLAZING BLUE SEA

Garne’s idyll by the sea makes a sensible, though backhanded point on the dignity of work and of stepping lightly upon the earth. In a sleepy rhyming text, readers fly on the wings of a parrot to a secluded Caribbean beach. There lives a fisherman, who spends his days in a humble, productive fashion; he is up long before dawn to fish, schedules a midday snooze under the palms, takes care of chores, and enjoys the dulcet companionship of a cat and a parrot. It is all so peaceful and tuned to the music of the spheres that it comes as a jolt when Garne states flatly: “Some think the old man/Is a poor simple fool—/No power, no money/No people to rule.” Few children think that way (the hard-working peasants of fairy tales tend to be the happy ones) so they’ll accept the conclusion, that the fisherman is content. It’s a point that can be inferred from most lines of text, especially the early ones, as well as from every painting. In vivid colors, Lohstoeter’s artwork captures the best qualities of both the Caribbean seascapes and the old-soul image of the man in his shanty on a strand out of time. (Picture book. 4-9)