Overview

It happened on a winter's day; (The air was cold, the sky was grey): Out walking in the woods alone, I came upon a wishing bone. What would you do, if your every wish came true? Do you know how a white rhinoceros takes his tea...where to find the elusive purple tiger...and who wanders in the whiffle bog on a bilgy, bulgy night? The Wishing Bone resonates with whimsical questions, inviting the reader to think and dream.

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9780763611187

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Reviews

Plainly channeling Edward Lear and maybe Lewis Carroll too, Mitchell (Hans Christian Andersen's Nightingale, illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline, 2002, etc.) offers nine rhymed ruminations, daffy episodes, and glimpses of imaginary wildlife, all illustrated, and sometimes illuminated, by Pohrt's (The Tomb of the Boy King, 2001, etc.) small, clean-lined, delicately exact figures. In the lengthy centerpiece, an expedition in search of The Last of the Purple Tigers sets out from Bangalore to track down the very rarest animal / that you could ever find. / Just three men had set eyes on her / (and two of them were blind). In other poems, a trial for an unspecified crime ends in an acquittal thanks to a huge bribe of food, the poet has a polite conversation with the Sun, receives nonsense answers from a white rhinoceros, and a transformative blow on the head from a frog- A light went on inside my brain: / 'Aha!' I cried with glee. / The world was bright and boisterous, / And I-released, rejoisterous- / Felt rounder than a pea. Mitchell's rhymes roll easily off the tongue, and as in the title poem, in which a weary wisher ultimately wishes away a magic bone's ability to grant them, there's a pervasive philosophical cast that will give thoughtful readers something to chew on. A handsomely packaged, nicely diverse gathering of words and art. (Poetry. 9-13) (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

"Stephen Mitchell is a renowned writer, translator and anthologist. He has written more than 30 books for adults and children, including The Nightingale (a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's classic story) and The Frog Prince. Of The Wishing Bone, he says, ""These poems throw their thoughts to words / Like breadcrumbs to a flock of birds. / They hope you like them. If you do, / Then (naturally) they'll like you."" Tom Pohrt has illustrated many children's books, including the bestseller Crow and Weasel by Barry Lopez. He is a self-taught artist who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is his first book for Walker."

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