The First Feud

by Lynn Plourde

Overview

Long ago, before people lived in the North Land and began their own fighting, there was the first feud... between the mountain and the sea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461743613
Publisher:	Down East Books
Publication date:	01/01/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	30
File size:	52 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 18 Years

Editorial Reviews

From the team behind Moose, of Course! comes a fable explaining how the Pine Tree State came to be. The snowcapped mountain Katahdin and the Atlantic Ocean each claim to be the most beautiful place in the North Land, and each sets out to prove its supremacy, e.g., "the mountain broke off a dazzling icicle from atop its peak and sent it in the eagle's talons back to the sea." Mishaps (the icicle melts en route, a necklace of shells gets crushed under a moose's hooves) result in misunderstandings, and so begins an all-out war. Maine author Plourde's (Snow Day) tale has the confident overtones of a Native American legend as Sollers's vibrant paintings personify the two rivals. Large, sweeping brushstrokes create the angular rocks that form the mountain's harsh facial features, while the ocean's emerald, foamy swells curl into menacing jaws and hands. At their angriest, each assumes an action-figure, cartoon-like countenance. When unleashing their separate furies destroys the land between them (Maine), mountain and sea finally can see each other's grandeur and vow to work together to heal the devastation. While this tale is likeliest to have regional appeal, the message that miscommunication can breed conflict, and that communication can restore harmony, has universal application. Ages 5-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 2-4-In this fable set in Maine, Mount Katahdin and the Atlantic Ocean each boasts that it is "the most beautiful place in the North Land." When attempts to best one another fail (an icicle sent by the mountain to the ocean melts, a necklace of shells is crushed on its way to the mountain), they declare war, destroying all the land in between. "Katahdin triggered its mightiest thunderstorms, most frigid blizzards, and strongest avalanches-"; "The Atlantic fired its flooding waters, wildest waves, and harshest hurricanes-." Sollers's strong paintings give form to the feuding entities. The resolution of the story is a little forced (they can at last see one another's beauty, and "It was as if the new bond between the great mountain and the great ocean was so strong that it spread their wondrous beauty in all directions"), as is the excuse for the war in the first place. The mythic magic of Maine is better seen in Robert McCloskey's A Time of Wonder (1957) or Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius (1982, both Viking).-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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