written by Diane Z. Shore
illustrated by Megan Lloyd
This is the Feast, a picture book, written by Diane Z. Shore, and illustrated by Megan Lloyd, is a wonderful, warm book, for parents to read to young children. In the book, Shore, an educator, tells the story of the harrowing trip the Pilgrims took across the Atlantic in search of a new and better life, and then she tells of the abundant life they worked for, and were rewarded with, on the shores of the new land.
The book makes a great read aloud for two reasons. It's told in rolling verse that begs to be read aloud and it's told, because it's in verse, I guess, in a way that doesn't fill in all the details of the story. The book mentions a plague that killed the Indians, for instance, but doesn't explain what it was or where it came from. Shore tells us that Pilgrims are sick and dying but doesn't say exactly what killed them. So this book is one of the best kinds of books, the kinds that raise questions in our minds and set us off on a journey of discovery. Fitting for a book about the Pilgrims setting off on their own journey of discovery, I think.
The way to tell a good picture book, I think, is to see how it grows on you. When I like a book better the second time I read it, and the third and even the tenth, then I know that it is effective as a picture book. And that's what I found about This is the Feast. The first things to grow on me were the pictures. When I first open a book for review I'm always looking for reasons to object to the work. And so I flipped through the picture and didn't care much for the artwork because it was of that stilted sort where the people are all in different poses but you don't feel any movement. Everything is frozen in time. (Sorry I'm not an artist and I can't tell you if there's a name for what I'm talking about.) But the second and third and fourth time I looked at the artwork, the more I liked it. I love the colors—the green corn against a yellow sky and the brown Indians in the green and white birch trees. My favorite spread is the one that depicts the Pilgrims first spotting America. A serene sea and pale sky blend on the horizon in a picture that promises hope after a harsh and harrowing trip across the ocean.
That spread also contains my favorite text of the book, which I won't quote since the work is so short and I don't want to break copyright laws. But about the text, that also grew on me with each reading. Shore's verse reads like a hymn. Anyone who reads my reviews knows I hate rhyming picture books with imperfect rhyme, but I've discovered in this book that I only hate that when it's poorly done. Shore purposely gives us imperfect rhyme and she does it without making it look like she's trying to rhyme. She pays attention to iambic meter and to long vowel sounds, instead of trying to force a rhyme in places. That actually is a stroke of genius, I think, as it moves the couplets from sing-song irritating, to meaningful hymnody. (Sorry, I'm no more a poet than I am an artist, so I can't really speak knowledgably about these matters. You'll have to take my review for what it is, my own uneducated opinion about how a book strikes me. I read by ear and Shore's lines hit me there with perfect rhythm.)
The book is historically accurate. (And my third confession for the review. Ugh. Guess what? I'm not a historian, either.) What Shore covers, she covers with accuracy. For instance, I have no idea what Shore's religious leanings are, but she paints the Pilgrims as religious people who thanked God for his providence. She didn't have them thanking the sun or Mother Earth and I am grateful for that. What good is a picture book about a historical event if it distorts the facts?
OK so I can't just rave about the book without mentioning weaknesses. I found one page that confused me—I didn't understand why cleared fields were far from baskets of corn nuggets and I didn't know what colored the gray days of despair, the corn nuggets or the fields. So there is a two page spread in the middle of the book that detracted from the reading experience for me. It pulled me from the poem as I stumbled in the reading.
On the art side there is one girl sewing and I dislike her face. Heh heh, I should talk! An old friend of mine taught me a ditty year ago that I've always loved. "My face, I don't mind it, I'm behind it, It's the fellow in front gets the jar." Ha! Nevertheless there is one face that I don't like in the book and I can't make myself like it no matter how aware I am of my own shortcomings in this area. So there it is.
Overall recommendation? I loved this book, I think it would be perfect for teachers of first through fourth graders who want to look at Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, and language arts and I think it's a fine addition to the home library. This 'un's a keeper, folks.
