Between Heaven and Earth Bird tales from around the world

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

For centuries birds and their magnificent ability to fly have inspired tales of mischief, mystery, and enchantment. In a collection that is as beautiful as it is timeless, award-winning author Howard Norman and Caldecott medalists Leo and Diane Dillon offer five bird stories from around the world--including one about an elusive bird that sings like a warthog and another about a much loved quail dying of thirst.

This glorious collaboration is the perfect gift for any family library, a book that children and parents alike will treasure.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The team behind The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese here presents five tales from Australia, Norway, Sri Lanka, Africa's Matabelel and China-each, in some form or another, about birds. Told to Norman by native speakers at a folktale conference (detailed and credited in an afterword), the tales are transformed, in his hands, into a handful of literary gems. A storyteller's cadence will draw in youngsters ("A pelican's shadow racing along the surface of the water is a frightful thing to a fleeing fish," observes the omniscient narrator of "The Disobedient Pelican Daughter"), while the stories themselves turn convention upside-down. A blind man knows more about birds than the seeing man who tries to outwit him; rude, toothy beasts treat each other with kindness and civility; and death does not take parents, but transforms them into swans, still visible to the loyal son (in "The Swan-Scholar's Great Secret") through a magic telescope ("They were flying over gorge trees, then landed on the water. Chiao said, `I love you without end,' as was his custom"). The Dillons' paintings suggest stained-glass windows. Bold outlines of stylized figures, etched lightly with white, enhance the sense of jeweled delicacy. Landscapes unfold as a wealth of geometric and floral patterns in sunset pastels. Like a concerto with fast and slow movements, the funny, fast-moving stories will be relished by younger listeners, while older readers may find themselves drawn to the moments of quiet sadness. Ages 7-10. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 3 Up-The birds in these five well-crafted folktales possess wisdom, are engaged in trickery, or teach lessons about sorrow or jealousy. And the lovely, secretive swans are village ancestors transformed upon dying as humans. Collected at the International Folklore Workshop at the University of Maryland, the stories might be viewed as contemporary manifestations of the oral tradition. All are remembered from childhoods spent far away in Australia, China, Matabeleland, Norway, and Sri Lanka. Smoothly polished and beautifully illustrated, the narratives portray characters, themes, and magical elements familiar in folklore. A pelican that owns the only fishnet in the world and a troublesome troll with an intriguing scarf of live crows will interest children in the early grades. The greater complexities and subtleties of the other three will pique the interest of older readers and listeners. The Dillons have broadly adapted folk motifs into selected scenes from each story. Thick outlines and muted colors suggest the wax-resist printing common to textiles in several of these countries. This collection offers versatile possibilities for use across the curriculum as well as inviting tales for personal enjoyment, reading aloud, and storytelling. A concluding essay identifies the actual contributors and offers personal information about them.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Gr. 3-7. In Between Heaven0 's closing note, adult novelist and folklore translator Norman introduces his sources: five adult students in his folklore class who, together, contributed and shaped the stories about birds. The result is a collection of stories that are rich in cultural references from the lands of their origins: China, India, Australia, Norway, and Sri Lanka. Younger children may need help with some of the tales' cultural background, sophisticated language, and symbolism, and the stories' sometimes unfocused pacing may not hold the attention of children accustomed to more tightly structured tales. Still, the Dillons' luminous watercolor-and-pencil illustrations, detailed with patterns drawn from each tale's culture of origin, will draw readers and listeners back to the stories. . Teachers will want this for reading aloud or inspiring students to create their own folktale compilations. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2004 Booklist

Horn Book Review

(Intermediate) The most noteworthy aspect of the five bird stories in this collection -- that they are living folklore -- is obscured, even subverted, by the manner of their presentation. As Norman explains in the afterword, the tales are the result of a workshop for immigrants he conducted in 1989 and 1990, where the five storytellers, from four continents, also put their stories in a ""personal context."" We do not get their tellings here, however, nor do we get more than a scrap of context; until the afterword, we don't get so much as their names. Contrary to good modern folklore practice, Norman has apparently retold all the stories himself -- how authoritatively, one can't tell. This is unfortunate because the five stories, a varied and interesting bunch, all have earmarks of living folklore that a more sensitive presentation, keyed to the individual storytellers, might have brought out. The first is an age-old Australian aboriginal tale in which Goolayyahlee the pelican, who alone knows how to make fishing nets, is induced to share his secret with the people. In the traditional version, he succumbs to mass pressure -- in the second, newer version, to the wiles of a rebellious daughter. The second story, the sort native to a single Norwegian fjord, pits three generations of splendid ice skaters -- a grandfather, daughter, and granddaughter -- against a troll with a scarf of live crows; he prevents each of them from winning the big local race until Grandfather, in a homey wrap-up, saves the day for little Elise. And so it goes, with now and again a sense of actuality, of presence. The Dillons' illustrations are boldly designed and patterned, as ever, and do strive for compositional and stylistic variety in accordance with the various tales. What they lack is a range of feeling. But whatever the book's shortcomings, the content of the stories is absorbing: you might try retelling them yourself, in fewer and crisper words. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

From the creators of The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese (1997), a less ambitious outing: five tales from a workshop run by Norman (15 years ago), illustrated with art that tries to look like leaded stained glass. Except for "The Bird Who Sang Like a Warthog," which resembles Rodanas's The Blind Hunter (2003), the stories are new. A "Disobedient Daughter" forces Goolayyahlee the pelican to teach Aboriginal people how to make fishing nets; a "Beautiful Quail" survives a drought in Sri Lanka thanks to the kindness of others; and the transformation of residents of a remote Chinese village into swans when they die becomes "The Swan-Scholar's Great Secret." All told in the same formal, restrained tone, the tales receive individuality from the names of the characters, and also from evocative motifs in the stylized art--though the Dillons' use of a diffuse line makes the colors look watery. Norman identifies the original tellers in a long afterword that's more about the workshop than the stories. Though handsomely packaged, this pricey gathering won't draw or keep the interest of child readers or tellers. (Folktales. 8-11) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.