The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan

The Secret River

56 pp. | Atheneum | January, 2011 | Trade ISBN 978-1-4169-1179-1 $19.99
New ed. (1955, Scribner)

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Leo Dillon & Diane Dillon. In this 1956 Newbery Honor Book (originally slightly longer and with art by Leonard Weisgard), Florida forest-dweller Calpurnia, with her dog Buggy-horse, finds the Secret River and a source of fish for her family and neighbors. The Dillons extend the story through their art, both in terms of setting (the eerie enchantedness of a Florida swamp) and characterization.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: August, 1955