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THE TROJAN HORSE by Warwick Hutton

THE TROJAN HORSE

Warwick Hutton

Pub Date: March 31st, 1992
ISBN: 0-689-50542-6
Publisher: McElderry

Again, Hutton's verbal and visual simplicity will evoke complex responses. In a brief retelling of Troy's fall, he offers a subtle comment on the whole subject of war: Paris, fleeing with Helen (they look more like dancers than fugitives), looks out at the reader with a knowing Archaic smile that reappears on the faces of the serpents as they crush the life out of LaocoĆ®n and his sons, and again on the huge, round-bellied horse. Some of the Trojans' clothing has a modern look, and the text closes on an ironic note—the horse towers over the ruined city, but ``Everyone had forgotten Paris and Helen, who had started it all.'' Occasionally, the spareness of the illustrations backfires—in one scene the Trojans are pulling the horse toward a gate that looks small rather than distant—but the focus of the action is always plain, even when the human figures are dwarfed by the city walls. A thoughtful, multilayered introduction to this ancient tale. (Picture book. 6-9)