The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Kay, Verla

Hornbooks and Inkwells

32 pp. | Putnam | July, 2011 | Trade ISBN 978-0-399-23870-3 $16.99

(2) K-3 Illustrated by S. D. Schindler. A portrait of a mid-eighteenth-century one-room school is animated by the ongoing feud between brothers Peter and John Paul. Kay's text is minimal, consisting of staccato quatrains: "Girls' side, boys' side, / John in front. / Peter snickers, / 'Yer a runt!'" Schindler's well-composed scenes evoke the period through the characters' dress, the school's minimal appurtenances, and students helping one another learn.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2011