Product Description

After being forced to sell the animals he loves, a farmer cuts his hedge to look like them and teaches his sons about following their hearts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1499704 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-11
• Released on: 2003-08-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 48 pages

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-There are no surprises in this gentle story, but there is ample assurance that following the dictates of one's heart is the surest path to personal fulfillment. In classic folkloric tradition, Fleischman tells of a happy farmer and his three sons who sing merrily as they go about their chores. When they fall on hard times, they are forced to sell their livestock and move to a small cottage surrounded by a hedge. While trimming it, the farmer begins to see shapes of animals within it and adjusts his clipping so that they become visible to all. As the boys become old enough to set out into the world, he cuts the hedge down. Each young man watches it grow and trims it, finding the shape of his own dreams: a carriage and team of horses, a sailing vessel, a fiddler playing for dancers. Thus, each is pointed toward his true vocation. In a conclusion that seems as inevitable as it is satisfying, the sons pitch in to buy their father the livestock he needs to return to the animal husbandry that is his soul's delight. Ibatoulline's watercolor-and-gouache illustrations, inspired by 19th-century American folk-art paintings, are the perfect complement to this simple allegory. Simply lovely.
Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
K-Gr. 3. Lush paintings reminiscent of nineteenth-century folk art illustrate this original tale about discovering one's true calling. When a drought forces a farmer to sell his land and animals, he moves with his three sons to a cottage with a hedge that, when clipped, seems to turn into animal shapes. As his sons grow old enough to seek a trade, the farmer encourages each to turn to the "magic" hedge for answers. As each trims the hedge, an occupation emerges. Years later, the successful sons return to their father, who admits that the hedge simply mirrored their own hearts. The story's elements don't always flow together, and there is some disconnection between the message of self-determination and the quiet paintings, rendered in a flat, decorative style, which portray the hedge as more magical than the text suggests. Children able to make the required leaps, however, will enjoy the mystery in the miraculous hedge and its soothsaying shapes. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Bagram Ibatoulline was born in Russia, graduated from the State Academic Institute of Arts in Moscow, and has worked in the fields of fine arts, graphic arts, mural design, and textile design. He has illustrated CROSSING by Philip Booth, an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, and THE NIGHTINGALE by Hans Christian Andersen as retold by Stephen Mitchell. He says, "As I was working on THE ANIMAL HEDGE, I was most influenced by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American folk art. I appreciate the naiveté of those untrained painters."

Customer Reviews

A lovely children's book
The Animal Hedge is a beautiful children's book with quietly amazing illustrations done in watercolor and gouache. The story tells of a farmer with three sons who endures the loss of his beloved animals and farm due to drought. He maintains himself as best he can, sharpening tools. He remembers the different dreams and abilities of his three sons when it comes time for them to choose their professions. When they each ask what trade they should choose, he tells them to watch the hedge that surrounds their tiny cottage, for its shape will give a powerful clue to the best vocation for each young man. Amazingly, wondrous shapes arise from the humble hedge to direct the sons in their vocations. The eldest sees a coach and becomes a coachman; the second sees a mystic ship and becomes a sailor, while the youngest sees a fiddler, always his dream, and he decides to become a fiddler. But most wonderful of all is the love and the vision of the farmer for his sons' futures. After they all leave and become successful in their chosen vocations, he is lonely and shapes his hedge in the forms of all the animals he had loved when he had his farm. Then all the sons come home and find that it was not nature alone , but their father's trimming of the hedge that had shown them the desires that lay in their hearts. Excited, they see the many animals he has shaped from the shrubs in his loneliness. They put their resources together and return to give their father the animals he has missed; chickens, pigs, and cows. Upon seeing this, "The farmer's heart glowed like a hot wood stove. And he made up his mind to let the hedge grow back just as it pleased."

This beautiful and healing tale of love between father and sons is further underscored by the muted colors and patchwork placements of the American folk art-influenced illustrations. Perhaps the most striking quality which might be encouraged by the telling of this story is faith in the dreams of youth, faith which endures and survives hardship and privation, faith which does not require youth to remold itself in the cast of the past, a faith which sets them free to follow their hearts, just as the father has done. This is a lovely children's book, very appropriate for preschool to kindergarten age levels. It is sure to be treasured by child and parent alike.

Incredible Folk Art Illustrations, Touching Story
Readers will have a hard time believing Bagram Ibatoulline's folk art illustrations were recently done in watercolor and gouache and are not true 19th c. folk art paintings. With their aged look and timeless quality, these incredible illustrations alone would make The Animal Hedge worth its price.

Fortunately, you will get even more than you bargained for since Paul Fleischman has written a wonderful and touching story. While the tale begins on a bit of a sad note when a farmer and his sons are forced from their land because of a drought, the tone is certainly changed when the rains begin to fall again and a magical hedge begins to show the three sons how to live happy and productive lives. The sweet ending will warm your heart.

A wonderful father/son story with a fantastical touch.

beautiful book
This is a beautiful book with a nice story. I purchased one for my son, but after seeing what a nice book it was, ordered a 2nd to give as a gift.