School Library Journal Review
Gr 1--3--In this gentle tale, a young girl named Hilda works alongside the much older Witch Hazel. Each season brings a new set of chores--sweeping in spring and dusting in summer and fall--and as they work, Hazel reflects on both the time of year and times gone by. She remembers being a playful girl and later a beautiful young woman. The color palette is simple with a light brown background throughout, graphite drawings of the present-day characters, and swirling, ghostly white figures to represent the past. By winter, Hazel has taken to her bed, and Hilda alone is in charge of tidying the house, as well as stepping into the role of storyteller. The ending is somber, though not heavy-handed. Readers will take comfort in the fact that Hazel's spirit will live on through Hilda, the new keeper of memories. VERDICT A reassuring tale about the power of memory and storytelling to provide comfort for grieving children and a simple life cycle story for a more general readership.--Gloria Koster
Publisher's Weekly Review
Working in expressive white and graphite lines on warm brown paper, Caldecott Honoree Idle draws Hazel, an elderly woman in a cape and a pointed hat, and Hilda, a girl clad in overalls, throughout the seasons. As Hazel and Hilda sweep the front porch one spring day--the paper background provides the characters' skin tone--Hazel shares a remembrance of herself as a girl. Using swooping, balletic curves, Idle renders Hazel's memories via lively, misty white images that unfold in and around the present-day duo: a young Hazel practices flying on her swing, a copy of Peter Pan in her hand. In the summer, Hazel, now shown in memory as a young woman, frees a songbird: "I loved him too much to keep him in a cage." And in the fall, a more adult Hazel in a splendid ball gown and live boa swirls and twirls. By winter, though, Hazel has taken to her bed, and soon becomes a solace-offering memory herself. The story's fantasy elements add little more than aesthetic to this tale of intergenerational love, but its attention to memory and loss tenderly shows how the capacity to tell stories is passed on. Ages 4--8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.)
