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| Johnny Longnose
| | James Krüss
| This interesting collaboration of an illustrator and two poets from different countries has an unmistakable international flavor. Twelve single-page oil paintings portray Johnny Longnose using his magnificent nose in various practical and imaginative ways, balanced by 12 poems that explicate the pictures.
The poems use a variety of rhyme schemes and rhythms (some more successful than others) and yet maintain an integrity necessary to the flow of the book.
The pictures show an eerily white Johnny, balanced on spindly legs against dark backgrounds largely in tones of blue and gray. Balance is achieved in a variety of delightful ways. Johnny's legs and nose are set out in parallel rows in one portrait. In another, he holds a long-beaked bird, his "brother," and their similar features shoot out in opposite directions. With Warwick Hutton's The Nose Tree (Atheneum, 1981; o.p.) and Marilee Burton's Tail Toes Eyes Ears Nose (Harper, 1988), this book would make a delightful unit on noses. Children might be encouraged to create their own galleries of paintings and writings to illustrate some possible uses of other parts of the body. --Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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