Old Home Day

Grade 2-4?In this eloquent "biography" of a fictional New Hampshire village, Blackwater evolves from a forested wilderness to a thriving farm community to a gentrified retreat. Created tens of thousands of years before the first humans settled on its shores, Blackwater Pond attracts arrow makers, trappers, and farmers. Families grow, intermarry, and disperse. By 1888, urban exodus turns the village into a place to revisit but not to remain. Old Home Day, officially designated in 1899 to lure back ex-New Hampshire residents, is celebrated for years; in 1999, descendants of the original settlers visit and think, "Maybe sometime we can live in this beautiful place." The ordinary events in the daily lives of the town's inhabitants become extraordinary through text that is at once direct and simple, yet lyrical and poetic. McCully's watercolors expand on the story by providing fascinating details and by capturing the bucolic atmosphere through the seasons and over centuries. The layout is as straightforward as the saga; the large, framed illustrations dominate the pages with brief text, like captions, often printed against a white background. Some concepts (subscription collections, gold stars on memorials) presume some level of reader sophistication, and children may be confused by the comings and goings of several families over multiple generations. Nevertheless, readers will be rewarded with an absorbing window into the life of a village. The author's appended note adds both a personal touch and historical perspective, but so much can be gained from simply enjoying the wonderful art and text.?Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3^-6, slightly younger for reading aloud. Change has replaced continuity in the lives of most modern kids. It is poet Hall's gift, in this beautifully realized picture book for older children, to demonstrate to readers of all ages that there is room for both. His concept is simple: to follow the evolution of Blackwater Pond from the Ice Age to 1999 New Hampshire, which he manages to do in 48 pages. The changes are recorded: the coming of grasses and shrubs; the arrival of the first people, "the arrow makers" ; their retreat after a long war. The year 1799 arrives and with it the first settler, Enoch Boswell. When he marries and fathers nine children, the first hint of continuity is planted like a seed. In language that has the wonderful eloquence of simplicity, Hall records the flow and ebb of family and town life that follow. A hundred years pass, and Old Home Day is proclaimed to encourage people who have moved away to come back to Blackwater Pond--for at least one day a year. Another 100 years pass, and Enoch's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Edward, and his seven-months-pregnant wife, Adrienne, come from Boston for Blackwater's bicentennial and think, "Maybe sometime we can live in this beautiful place." And one thing more: if their baby is a boy, they decide, they will name him Enoch. Caldecott medalist McCully has created beautifully evocative watercolor images that not only capture the look of the land and its people but also honor Hall's splendid celebration of some simple, beautiful things that endure. Michael Cart