The Little General and the Giant Snowflake by Matthea Harvey
My rating: 3/5 cats
Welcome to a world where the Realists and the Dreamers have formed opposing armies and snowflakes appear to those who don’t use their imagination…
reading the back of this, i was afraid that it would be like one of david mamet’s kids books—totally inappropriately sophisticated and boring to kids, baffling to adults.
but i had to have it because i have loved her poetry, and it was for sale at the open air one dollar book fair, which is the best and most dangerous of ideas.
but it is still a little complicated. the moral or theme or what have you is about the power of and necessity for…imagination. isn’t this preaching to the choir? aren’t all kids made of imagination? does tin house even publish children’s books? is this just another way of blurring the line between child and adult by making us feel okay with our infantilized entertainments?
furthermore, this book says it is okay to pretend you have a pet toucan, and to make other people acknowledge it even though it is invisible, which is either charming or terrifying, depending on my mood.
but it is a sweet little book, regardless of the intended audience. i love the illustrations, and although it is not as lovely as her poetry, i enjoyed reading more of her words.
incidentally, dfw loved her poems, which is where i discovered her in the first place, on the syllabus he gave his students. so, fans of, go read…
also: here is an interview: http://tinhousebooks.com/blog/?p=423/
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