A Small Tall Tale from the Far Far North: (New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year, ALA Notable Children's Book; Eskimoan)

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About A Small Tall Tale From The Far Far

Product Description With the help of Eskimos, Jan Welzl survives a perilous journey from central Europe to the Arctic regions in the late 1800s From Publishers Weekly Sis ( Follow the Dream ) draws on boyhood memories for this imaginative yarn about a maybe-real, maybe-fictitious Czech explorer, Jan Welzl. As the tale begins, Welzl breaks free from a drab existence and lights out for the Far North, where he encounters treacherous storms, a mysterious golden mountain on the horizon, northern lights, and kindly Eskimo hunters who teach him their traditions and a host of survival skills. When gold diggers arrive and threaten his newfound friends' peaceful existence, Welzl outwits the intruders. The story itself is slight, a fragment really, but readers are borne rapturously along on Sis's exquisitely intricate artwork. At times recalling Da Vinci's sketches, Sis's handsome pen-and-ink washes are filled with maps, intriguing borders, eclectic details and a pervasive sense of the fantastical that provides just the right balance for the story's nostalgic tone. Vignettes dropped onto antique-like papers suggest the look of an old picture album, while other spreads are joyfully quixotic (Eskimos dine under the canopy of a dinosaur skeleton; Welzl is carried down a tunnel decorated with pseudo-pictographs which illustrate a folktale). Whether or not Welzl existed is irrelevant; he certainly lives on in Sis's imagination, and will continue to thrive in the memories of Sis's readers. Ages 5-10. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Gr. 2-4. This unusual picture book tells of the life and/or legend of Czech folk hero Jan Welzl, who leaves his hometown to travel in the frozen north. There he survives through hard work and good fortune and by learning the ways of the Eskimos. The book ends on an ambiguous, incomplete note, with Jan deciding to protect his Eskimo friends from greedy Europeans seeking gold. The story is idealized but different enough to be intriguing, and the artwork is a fascinating series of scenes in mottled watercolors with precise pen-and-ink drawings and stamped figures of arctic animals, snowflakes, and the like. The overall effect is mysterious, and some children will enjoy poring over the detailed drawings and maps and fitting the story together. Carolyn Phelan From Kirkus Reviews In an intriguing global verso to his Follow the Dream (1991), S¡s embroiders on an autobiographical tall tale, remembered by Jan Welzl (1868-1951) from his youth in Czechoslovakia. Welzl was a locksmith who escaped Eastern Europe to cross Siberia and make a life with the Eskimos. Shipwrecked off California in 1924, he was deported to Moravia, where he wrote several books that weren't always believed; there's a gravestone bearing his name in the Yukon. As S¡s did in the book about Columbus, he supplies a simple text and contrasts intricate spreads incorporating Europe's confining walls and old maps with the broad expanses to which his hero escapes, while Welzl's adventures are depicted in series of tiny vignettes and other imaginative conformations. There's a fantastical encounter with a magnetic golden mountain, later invoked to divert gold diggers from disturbing Welzl's friends the Eskimos, who have generously taken him in and taught him to survive. This denouement isn't developed much; but the unusual story and the extraordinary visual delights accompanying it are not to be missed. (Picture book. 5-10) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.