Through Moon And Stars And Night Skies by Ann Turner

Dust for Dinner (I Can Read Book - Level 3)

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-2-Jake and Maggy and their parents live on a farm in Oklahoma where they grow crops, raise animals, and sing and dance to the music on the radio. But when a drought comes and dust storms destroy the land, the family must auction all of their belongings and head to California. They manage to hang on to their radio and their dog as the only reminders of the life they've left behind. With the adults working odd jobs, they make their way across the country and are lucky enough to find a better life in California. Jake's first-person narrative; the use of the radio as a motif to provide continuity; and the realistic, full-color illustrations combine to make this story a well-written introduction to the Depression for beginning readers. No dates are given in the story to provide context or historical background, but this information is included in an author's note at the end.
Jan Shepherd Ross, Dixie Elementary Magnet School, Lexington, KY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Gr. 1^-2. In this I Can Read Book, Turner takes a sad episode in history and fashions it into a story that has some depth as well as some drama. It revolves around an Oklahoma family displaced by drought and the Depression. Because the book is divided into chapters, youngsters will get the feeling of reading a "real book," while having the luxury of short sentences, generous leading, and a direct, easy-to-grasp plot line. Realistic, nicely executed illustrations decorate every page, and the book ends on a happy note: Dad finally finds a job in California. Stephanie Zvirin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Release Date: 01/03/1997

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Katie's Trunk

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-5-- As she did in Dakota Dugout (Macmillan, 1985), Turner creates a moment in history with evocative words and poetic images. Here she turns her attention to the period between the Boston Tea Party and the battles that began the American Revolution. Katie, the middle child in a family of Tory sympathizers, senses the impending conflict. When a group of armed neighbors come to their home with the intention of stealing and looting, the family takes refuge in the adjoining woods. The child impulsively dashes back to the house to protect their valuable possessions. When one of the young rebels disturbs her hiding place, he calls off his companions, keeping his discovery a secret. This story presents another side of a moral issue. There were good people loyal to England before and during the Revolution; students should hear their stories as well as those of the more famous and celebrated rebels. Himler's muted watercolor and pencil illustrations convey the mood of the calm before a storm. The details of costume and furnishings further reinforce the sense of place and time. However, the artist gives little attention to individualized facial characteristics, making it difficult to distinguish one person from another. The text and illustrations do blend harmoniously, and together tell a tale of courage, fortitude, and loyalty from the Tory point of view. With spare but eloquent prose, Turner has created a thoughtful picture of a family confronting difficult choices in unsettling times. --Martha Rosen, Edgewood School, Scarsdale, NY
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Card catalog description
Katie, whose family is not sympathetic to the rebel soldiers during the American Revolution, hides under the clothes in her mother's wedding trunk when they invade her home. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Nettie's Trip South (Aladdin Picture Books)

by: Ann Turner

From Publishers Weekly
Turner's Dakota Dugout and Third Girl from the Left proved her ability to write of the settlers' hard lives on the Plains. This time she presents, in the form of a sparely written, evocative letter to a friend, a young girl's impressions of the South and her first encounter with slavery. Traveling with her sister and journalist brother, Nettie learns that, according to the Constitution, slaves are only 3/5 people. She looks to see what comprises the 2/5 they are missing. And she meets Tabitha, who only has that one name, "Like a cat or a dog." She throws up when she sees two black children who have to be forcefully separated when they are auctioned off to different owners. Nettie is changed when she returns home. The historical distance makes this fact-based account no less heart-wrenching and realistic. Himler's black-and-white pencil drawings are somber, yet in those scenes of past sorrows, there are glimpses of hope. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6 Young Nettie describes her journey to the antebellum South in this picture book based upon a diary of Turner's great-grandmother. Nettie's brother Lockwood goes to Richmond to report on conditions, and Nettie and her sister Julia go along. Nettie meets several slaves, and even attends a slave auction, which so repulses her that she vomits. Turner's story is a compelling and thought-provoking one, sure to arouse readers' sympathies. It also gets inside an evolving abolitionist, a sympathetic view not often explored in Civil War stories. Himler's large pencil illustrations are well rendered and highlight key scenes, enhancing the story. While the book can be used with younger elementary grade children, it will have its widest audience among older readers, who can more clearly see and understand the author's message. Elizabeth M. Reardon, McCallie School, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Sitting Bull Remembers

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-In this first-person, fictionalized account, Sitting Bull is living in captivity near the end of his life and remembering his past. He longs for the life that Native Americans enjoyed before the coming of the Wasicu, the white people. He talks about the Sioux victory at Little Bighorn and the destruction of the buffalo herds. Turner's writing is lyrical, almost poetic. The story is poignant and sympathetic to the plight of the Native peoples who were driven from their land and forced to live on tiny reservations. They are depicted as brave and noble victims, while white people are the greedy villains who want only gold. The illustrations give a romanticized view of Native American life on the Great Plains, and are similar in style to those in Joseph Bruchac's A Boy Called Slow (Philomel, 1995). Minor includes pictograph images superimposed on the representational art to suggest Sitting Bull's feelings and vision. The well-crafted art adds drama and depth to the story. This book is a mood piece that communicates the injustice of Native American oppression in the 1800s. Those looking for an unbiased, fact-filled account of Sitting Bull's life must look elsewhere, for example, to Ann Todd's Sitting Bull (Capstone, 2002).-Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Though we fought hard, they built their railroad, / and noise and smoke and greed / came to stay on our land. In this handsome, fictionalized picture-book biography (which is catalogued as nonfiction), spare, moving poetry and beautiful double-page paintings depict Sitting Bull, the chief of the Sioux people, remembering how it was. The chief recalls when he was 14 and first counted coup by striking an enemy warrior's head, and then how it all changed with the arrival of the whites who killed the buffalo and wanted to own the land and sell it, piece by piece. He also remembers Custer, and how the Sioux were hunted and hounded and forced onto the reservation. Then he thinks back to his own surrender. The art includes clear colored-pencil pictures inspired by images of Sitting Bull housed in the Smithsonian Institution. A final note fills in some of the essentials of the rich history. Rochman, Hazel

Release Date: 08/21/2007

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The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 (Dear America)

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-Sarah Nita, 13, tells the story of the Navajo's forced 400-mile Long Walk from their ancestral homeland through winter snow to Fort Sumner. The confusion, fear, and suffering of The People are drawn with clarity and immediacy. A factual afterword gives a larger picture of the times with captioned period photographs of the Navajo. The story is rich with details of Native life gracefully woven into the telling of events. Characterizations are complete, even for minor participants. The publication information is at the rear of the book, as it is for all titles in this series, which has given rise to a general criticism that the stories are easily mistaken for actual period diaries. The CIP classification is 813.54; granted, that is American fiction, but placing this book in the nonfiction section of the library only adds to the confusion. The author's comments allow readers to believe that Sarah Nita was a real girl ("born in 1851"). All the same, it is a compelling story, and its power will attract readers.
Cris Riedel, Ellis B. Hyde Elementary School, Dansville, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
In her first book for the Dear America series, acclaimed historical fiction writer Ann Turner brings readers the deeply affecting story of a Navajo girl on the long walk.

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Hard Hit

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-As in Learning to Swim (Scholastic, 2000), Turner addresses an intense subject in lyrical poetry. Mike, 16, has the perfect life-star baseball player, cute girlfriend, and loyal best friend-until the phone call that turns his life upside down. His father has pancreatic cancer. While his friends continue to live their lives, time stands still for Mike. His dad suffers through and begins the wasting away that cancer causes. A short period of remission brings a brief period of celebration. In the end, however, Mike finds that his bargains with God and his attempts to get along better with his sister are all for naught. His father dies and he must find a way to go on with his life. Teens who have experienced serious illness and/or death in their family or with close friends will relate to Turners profound novel that traces the journey of one young man through the stages of grief and recovery. National help lines, addresses, and Web sites are included for readers who need them.-Kathryn Childs, Morris Mid/High School, OK
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 7-10. Tenth-grader Mark Warren is a golden boy: good friends, a gorgeous girlfriend, and an awesome pitching arm, an arm that his dad has cultivated since Mark was small. Yet all turns gray and meaningless when Mark learns that his father has pancreatic cancer. In a carefully crafted, free-verse narrative, the teen tells of his struggle with faith, hope, and disillusionment as his family watches his father slip away--and the inevitable terror and guilt of those still living. It's a hard, sad, beautifully written book, spare yet with surprisingly well-developed characters. Unlike longer, more complex novels that build layers of emotion through description and events, Turner employs poetry to paint the reality of gradual loss, and the language conveys the absence of all the family has known and its emptiness without its central figure. A short bibliography of resources for children whose parents have died rounds out this special book. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Love Thy Neighbor: the Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson

by: Ann Turner

Amazon.com
"This is not the life I imagined I would have." So laments Prudence Emerson, an inquisitive, distinctly non-prudent 13-year-old girl from Massachusetts who wants to be cheerful but who must, along with her Tory family, live in fear of her Patriot neighbors in the months leading up to the American Revolution. Like the other books in the Dear America series, Ann Turner's Love Thy Neighbor is recounted in diary form--a fictional diary that reveals the innermost thoughts of a young woman while painting a vivid picture of the times in which she lived. The innate complexities of the conflicts between Tories and Patriots are clearly presented, and readers will certainly gain a new understanding of the challenges of overthrowing foreign rule and beginning a democracy from the rarely explored perspective of a family "on the wrong side" of the war. Readers will also learn about daily colonial life--when bacon came from the pigs one owned, where ink was made from ink powder or maple bark, where girls were expected to embroider, wear corsets, scrub floors, go to church on Sundays, and generally mind their manners. Pru is a strong, spirited heroine whom readers will cheer on as she endures alienation from her Patriot friends, the sickness of her little sister, rising hostility, and ultimately, being uprooted from the home she loves to flee the danger of war.

A note in the back further illuminates life in the Colonies, as do historical illustrations and a note from the author about her own family connection to this turbulent time. Two other fictional diaries set during the Revolutionary War are Kristiana Gregory's Dear America book The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart and Barry Denenberg's My Name is America book The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot. (Ages 9 to 14) --Karin Snelson

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Prudence Emerson and her family live in Massachusetts in 1774 and are loyal to the English king. Many villagers are Patriots and as they grow weary of the oppressive laws, they begin to turn on their Tory neighbors. Prudence's former friends won't speak to her, someone throws a rock through a window in her house, and Patriots refuse to do business with her father. As the town's dark mood escalates, the Emersons flee to Boston to stay with relatives under the protection of British troops. The author does an outstanding job of showing how Tories became embroiled with their neighbors in a sort of civil war. Prudence is a typical teenager, but she is also loyal to her family's views and frightened by the hostile attitude of her former friends. Details of Colonial life are intricately interwoven, from Prudence's difficulty in obtaining ink to write in her diary to her mother's use of herbs in her midwifery practice. The action and suspense build steadily and will keep readers hooked. A compelling portrait of a "dissenting" voice.
Kristen Oravec, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Drummer Boy: Marching to the Civil War

by: Ann Turner

From Publishers Weekly
Turner (Dust for Dinner) takes readers to a Civil War battlefield in this disturbing picture book narrated by an idealistic 13-year-old. The premise is much the same as that of Gary Paulsen's novel Soldier's Heart (reviewed July 20); unfortunately, the lessons may be too complex for a picture book audience, at least in this treatment. The narrator, a farm boy, has liked Lincoln ever since he gave a speech in the boy's town, and sometime after war breaks out (no specific time or place is given) the memory of that encounter inspires him to join up. He also wants to free the slaves. Lying about his age, he is enlisted as a drummer boy, asked to march with the troops and "raise a tune for our men in battle." In the heat of bloody confrontation, the boy witnesses the atrocities of war. He holds the hand of a mortally wounded soldier "until his eyes stopped seeing." Poetic turns of phrase further describe how grim reality quickly dims a boy's bright-eyed patriotism. But there are problems here. The passage about slavery seems tacked on, the boy never feels fully real and the most interesting information about drummer boys is relegated to an afterword. The ending misfires: the boy bitterly blames Lincoln for making him "see things no boy should ever see." Hess's (Hercules: The Man, the Myth, the Hero) atmospheric, dramatic scenes capture period touches as well as the serenity of rural life and the action of combat. But he, too, stumbles: while all of the other scenes are carefully lit and detailed, a view of slave quarters is so muddy and imprecise that a slave woman looks shockingly misshapen and simian. Well intended but off the mark. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-After hearing Lincoln speak, a 13 year old is mesmerized by the president's powerful presence and runs away to join the Union Army as a drummer boy. After a quick acceptance by the army, he eagerly dons his uniform and learns how to handle his instrument. The battle scenes are frightening but not terribly gory. The unnamed youngster is understandably disturbed as he witnesses his first deaths. He does not become hardened to the sadness, but he does learn to cope and do his job, relaying orders with his drumbeats and masking some of the agonized battle sounds. Two portraits frame the story. In the first, he is an innocent-looking farm boy wearing a straw hat, a small, anticipatory smile on his lips. By the end of the book, his eyes are shadowed and his mouth is set in a firm line. He has seen "things no boy should ever see." The narrative does not have the emotional pull of George Ella Lyon's Cecil's Story (Orchard, 1991) or the gut-wrenching power of Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say (Philomel, 1994). However, Turner's prose vividly relates the boy's situation in a few well-chosen words set off in small boxes. Paired with Hess's historically illuminating paintings, the result is an informative introduction to the Civil War. It would be a great resource to share with students reading fiction such as G. Clifton Wisler's Mr. Lincoln's Drummer (1995) or Red Cap (1991, both Lodestar).
Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Release Date: 07/25/1998

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Abe Lincoln Remembers

by: Ann Turner

Amazon.com
From his humble beginnings in a small log cabin, young Abe Lincoln knew "that being tall is not enough to make your way in this world." He worked hard on a flatboat, in a general store, and then studying to become a lawyer, eventually making his way into politics. Along the way he married and had three boisterous sons: "They were like balls bounding down a road, and people said they had no manners or discipline. I thought happiness more important than manners, though I didn't like it when Tad drove his cart and goats down the White House hall." Deeply relieved when the Civil War is over, Abe Lincoln is finally ready to be happy on the fateful night that he sets out to Ford's Theater to see a play with his wife.

The focus of this simple picture book is not on Lincoln's death--the book concludes before Abe and Mary even leave the White House--but rather on the admirable life he led. Although many are well acquainted with the legendary story of young Abe's rough upbringing in Kentucky and his unquenchable thirst for learning, Ann Turner's fictionalized biography, told in a fresh and immediate first-person point of view, adds a sweet note of poignancy and humanity to one of America's greatest heroes. With his historically accurate paintings, award-winning illustrator Wendell Minor captures the expressions and experiences of a man who, at the conclusion of the war, sees "how sorrow has dug lines in my cheeks." (Ages 6 to 9) --Emilie Coulter --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Minor's (Red Fox Running) stately, lifelike paintings and Turner's (Learning to Swim) anecdotal narrativeAwritten in the conversational voice of LincolnAshape an insightful portrait of this leader. The author chronologically organizes the text into accessible vignettes, each accompanied by a finely detailed illustration marked by sharp, nearly photographic definition. Turner emphasizes Lincoln's fascination with words and learning with well-chosen similes (as a lawyer, "I practiced my cases out loud as I walked,/ learning how to use words/ like a leading rein on a colt/ to take people where I wanted"), and stresses his early commitment to end slavery, his unwavering ethics and his profound anguish at the destruction and death caused by the Civil War. Cheerful moments inject some levity into the volume, as when Lincoln describes Mary Todd, the woman who would become his wife ("She was bright and brave/ like a flag cracking in the wind,/ all color, rustle, and shine"), and his son Tad's habit of driving his cart and goats through the White House hall. This well-rounded volume ends on an affecting, ironic note: As Lincoln and his wife "wait to go see a play," he thinks back on his childhood log cabin, reflecting on "how much has come to pass since then. How much there is still to be done." Ages 6-9. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Release Date: 01/07/2003

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Learning To Swim

by: Ann Turner

Amazon.com
Ann Turner's lyrical Learning to Swim will resonate with any adult or teenager who knows the shame and confusion of sexual molestation. Her memories of a family summer vacation keep coming back "like a skunk dog / on the porch / whining to get in." For Turner, telling her story to the world is what sets that skunk dog running. Divided into three sections, "sailing," "sinking," and "swimming," the book chronicles a holiday trip through the eyes of a very young girl--small enough to use a pink swimming ring in Dresser's Pond, play dress-up, and run races. It's Kevin, an older boy from down the street, with the "hands that grab," who takes her upstairs under the pretense of reading to her ("a secret time for us / and never, ever tell"), and she doesn't even know she can say no. In searingly simple language, Turner walks us through the little girl's forever-altered world, past the place where the truth comes out and healing can begin. (Ages 13 and older) --Karin Snelson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Using spare vignettes laid out like poetry, Turner (Nettie's Trip South) recalls the summer she was six years old, when she was sexually abused by a neighbor. Convincingly assuming a child's voice, the narrative blends Annie's routine activities such as playing with dolls and swimming lessons with darker images of the neighbor boy's transgressions (the boy "telling me to touch him/ in a hard, breathless voice, and I didn't even know/ I could say/ no"). Because Annie lacks the vocabulary to describe what is happening to her, it is her actions that most often imply her emotions (she draws an angry picture, she brushes her teeth five times a day, she tries to hide). Turner also describes Annie's painful longing to confide in someone (she says of her father, "I wish my words/ were smoke/ he could breathe in") but she is silenced by fear of what the neighbor boy's might do if she tellsAuntil Annie's mother extracts the truth. Throughout the volume, the narration shifts, sometimes addressing the reader, a few times her abuser; sometimes speaking in the immediate present and others recalling the recent past. The narrative itself may be at times disjointed, but the emotional truth comes through clearly. If older readers can get past the youth of the narrator they will likely appreciate the poetic voice and courage of the heroine. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Sewing Quilts

by: Ann Turner

Card catalog description
A pioneer girl sees pieces of her life sewn into the quilts she, her sister, and her mother make.

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Moon for Seasons, A

by: Ann Turner

From Publishers Weekly
Using clear imagery and rich watercolors, Turner ( Apple Valley Year ) and first-time illustrator Noreika create a collection of nature poems that shimmers with life. Beginning with winter, the book devotes a section of seven poems to each season. During a snowfall a girl can "lie on my back and watch / them falling, feel them / falling, and taste sky / on my tongue"; in summer, swallows' tails "slice the clouds / more delicate than surgeons." The verse has a comfortable, easy-to-read rhythm, and identifiable, though fresh comparisons that should be accessible to the target audience. Noreika's lush outdoor scenes exhibit a skillful play of sunlight, moonglow and shadow. His frogs, porcupines and vegetation are an interesting blend of realism and romance. Nature lovers and poetry aficionados alike have something to cheer about. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4-Turner's short poems, arranged by season, beckon readers to woods, pond, and farmhouse backyard, where time is measured by the changing moon. Readers will recognize some familiar scenes-frozen sheets drying on the line, the appearance of the first red maple leaves, and watching the river from a special "sitting rock." Other images, such as frogs waiting for spring in the muddy pond bottom, capture nature in her more private moments. Noreika's realistic watercolors bring the appealing landscapes vividly to life. The illustrations follow the detail of the poems precisely, with a palette inspired by the changing seasons they celebrate. The art echoes Turner's perfect balance of quiet scenes (falling snow, shadows on the water) with frantic, even vicious moments (an owl swoops to catch a blue jay, a porcupine is caught in a night gale). This collection will be appreciated by readers familiar with the world the poet describes, but is also a wonderful antidote for summer in the city. Pair it with Nancy White Carlstrom's How Does the Wind Walk? (Macmillan, 1993), a poem that follows the wind through its seasonal changes.
Lisa S. Murphy, formerly at Dauphin County Library System, Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Maia of Thebes (Life and Times)

by: Ann Turner

From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. Thirteen-year-old Maia and her brother live with their aunt and their uncle, a temple priest, in ancient Thebes during the reign of Hatshepsut. Maia, whose brother is secretly teaching her to read and write, is inspired by the voices that only she can hear to ask a question in the temple implying her uncle has been stealing its grain. With her safety in jeopardy, Maia relies on her friends, her wits, and her skills as a scribe to survive. Eventually, her fate is decided by Queen Hatshepsut herself. The violence of the times is evident when Maia casts a fishing net into the Nile and draws up a severed hand, and readers are told that losing a hand for thievery may be her uncle's punishment. Other elements of ancient Egyptian society, religion, and law are incorporated into the story in less-sensational ways. Though the plot relies on coincidence, readers will want to follow Maia's story to the end. A historical novel from the publisher's Life and Times series. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
The intrigue and mysticism of ancient Egypt comes to life in Ann Turner's spectacular addition to The Life and Times series. In the time of the Pharoah Hatshepsut's rule, the Egyptian days could pass as slowly as the Nile's lazy waters, or as quickly as the Nile's rising floodwaters. Maia and her brother are orphaned and living with a cold, judgmental aunt and uncle in Thebes. Searching for a way out of their house, Maia pleads with her brother, Sethnet, who is learning to be a scribe, to teach her how to write. He agrees, and this is to be her saving skill.

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Apple Valley Year

by: Ann Turner

From Publishers Weekly
This quiet picture book focuses on a hardworking family in an old-fashioned farming community. The Clarks of Apple Valley tend a vast apple orchard which is the cornerstone of their livelihood. Each season brings new wonders of nature--and new chores to do. In spring Ralph Clark brings his beehives to the blossoming trees to aid in the pollination process. Summertime means the first appearances of green-red fruit, and the family reinforces branches laden with apples. A big harvest means new school shoes and a bit of security--as Sarah Clark says, "A good apple sale makes a good year." Turner's unadorned text has a slightly stilted rhythm and her no-nonsense vocabulary conveys lots of information within the framework of a family profile. Resnick's debut features rustic folk art acrylics in lively variations of countryside greens, ambers and blues. Consistent with the style, her human and animal figures are stiffly rendered, but they nicely complement the earthy backgrounds. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Card catalog description
The Clark family keeps busy through all four seasons at their apple orchard, pruning dead branches at the end of winter, carrying the beehives among the trees in May, propping up branches heavy with summer fruit, and harvesting the apples in the fall.

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In the Heart

by: Ann Turner

From Publishers Weekly
Mavor's (Mary Had a Little Lamb) distinctive, multidimensional art, a satisfying pastiche of curios, fabrics and creative needlework, is surely the heart of this visually enticing volume. Doll-like characters pop from the pages as Turner (Drummer Boy) follows a girl through a day. Brief poems describe the narrator's world, e.g., "The heart of the house/ is my kitchen:/ orange cat by my seat,/ a muffin warms my hand,/ talk like clouds of steam." With similar phrasing and cadence, she observes, "The heart of the street is my sidewalk," "The heart of the town is my school," "The heart of the afternoon is my friend" and so on. Observant youngsters may wonder at an inconsistency: the text concludes with the words that the moon "comes back to me /deep in the pillow,/ deep in the bed,/ deep in the heart of/ the house" this last no longer referring to the kitchen. But most will probably be too caught up in the pictures to notice. The girl's bedroom, for example, is a 3-D fantasy incorporating wood (bedposts, chairs, window frame), tiny stuffed animals, a beautifully embroidered rug edged with rickrack, and more. Arts and crafts enthusiasts will find inspiration in Mavor's work; nearly everyone will find something to admire. Ages 4-8.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-K-This poem follows a little girl from morning to night. "The heart of the day/is the sun:/a warm blanket on my eyes/and nose and feet,/a gold hat for my head." She describes the heart of her home (her kitchen), her yard (her tree), her town (her school), and more. With simple, fresh images that are grounded in the physical and the immediate, the appealing verse is beautifully illustrated with fabric collages. Children will love the color, the detail, and the three-dimensional look Mavor achieves. More a loving mood piece than a story, this title may not be an essential purchase, but is certainly artistically successful in its near-perfect blending of text and visuals. A cozy look at a happy and peaceful child.
Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Red Flower Goes West

by: Ann Turner

From Publishers Weekly
Turner's (Shaker Hearts; Angel Hide and Seek) somewhat labored story of a family's difficult journey to the California gold rush territory is filled with details familiar to most adults, but centered on an idiosyncrasy. At the beginning, the narrator's mother tells his father, "You can ask me to leave my home and friends, but this flower came from Mother's garden. Where I go, this flower goes too." The symbol of the uprooted flower, though sometimes heavy-handed, generally works as a unifying device for the travails of the transplanted family. Occasionally, however, James's and his family's concern for the flower seems not only needlessly anthropomorphic but misplaced. While they risk dehydration in crossing "the drylands," James shares his tiny allotment of water with the plant ("I told [my sister], 'If that flower dies, we'll never get to California' "). When James's father almost drowns, James "clutche[s] Red Flower, [tells] her to watch over Pa," and then credits the flower for helping "somehow" to save Pa's life. The illustrations are poignant in their spareness, if not particularly childlike. As with antique photographs, Nolan's (Dinosaur Dream) finely etched portraits and landscapes are barely tinted with color, except for the red geranium that looms as an emblem of the family's hope. Ages 5-9. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 3A boy describes his familys cross-country journey during the California Gold Rush. When Pa declares that they will be heading west, Ma digs up a plant from her garden and insists on taking it along, saying, Where I go, this flower goes too. As the family travels by wagon across rivers, through drylands, and over mountains, the children stake their hopes on the survival of Red Flower. When the plant begins to wither, they worry that they will never reach their destination. Then a new leaf appears and they are sure they will make it to California after all. When Red Flower is finally planted in what will be the garden of their new home, the family is filled with hope for the future. Though the characters have little depth or personality, the simple narrative is enriched by the way in which Red Flower becomes a symbol for the struggles of this pioneer family. Nolans illustrations are particularly effective. Each full-page painting is rendered in soft grays and browns, with just a few splashes of color. The green leaves and especially the red petals of the flower stand out prominently, marking the plants significance in the story. The inventive visual presentation makes the tale involving and memorable.Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Finding Walter

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6. Turner's offering is a confusing hodgepodge of themes. Sweet little Emily and horrible older sister Rose are cleaning out their aunt's doll house. Naturally, the dolls have rich inner lives, and they manage to communicate with Emily almost immediately. Rose is a tougher nut to crack, but then she is suffering from the trauma of her family's move to Gran's, out in the country. Rose does horrible things to the dolls until they break through her tough facade. Walter is the youngest doll, who is missing somewhere in the great wilderness of the backyard. The search for him involves the dolls' manipulating the family into getting a dog, surviving a fire, and telepathy. The boy doll, like Oz's Tin Man, even gets a heart. Turner's use of language makes for some vivid reading. However, it's not enough to compensate for the breakneck pace of the plot or shallow human characterizations. With the added tensions of some family problems, the fears associated with starting a new school, and the sisters' rocky relationship, there is just too much going on. In addition, the fantasy of the dolls fails because Turner is inconsistent with the rules. By giving the dolls the powers to connive and exert free will, she kills the need to willingly suspend disbelief. Recommend Betty Ren Wright's The Dollhouse Murders (Holiday, 1983), William Sleator's Among the Dolls (Dutton, 1975; o.p.), and Jean S. O'Connell The Dollhouse Caper (Crowell, 1976; o.p.), and forget about finding Walter.?Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
For readers who ever felt that dolls had thoughts and feelings comes a funny, touching fantasy from Turner (Mississippi Mud, p. 728, etc.). Two sisters, Emily and Rose, clean up an old dollhouse they find in their grandmother's attic. The dolls have been lying dormant, abused by mice, moths, and dust, and are relieved to have someone play with them again. But as they reemerge into life, the doll family finds that the youngest member of their clan, Walter, is nowhere to be found. By sending the girls mental images, the dolls communicate their plight and the warring sisters work together to help the dolls become a complete family again, and mend their own relationship, too. Emily and Rose's alliance unfurls nicely in the background without upstaging the real starsthe dolls. Readers will embrace the characters and warm to the old-fashioned manners and attitudes the dolls demonstrate. Turner's style is gentle and timeless, masterfully shifting between the ``real'' world and the doll world. Not only a humorous, thoughtful adventure, the story is a smart allegory that, like Sylvia Cassedy's Behind the Attic Wall (1983), has the makings of a classic. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Hedgehog for Breakfast

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-2-- This engaging story of a fox family who invites Mrs. Hedgehog "for breakfast" includes elements of surprise, hospitality, misunderstanding, and kindness. The fox children set out to escort Mrs. Hedgehog to their den, assuming that their father intends to eat her, not eat with her! The endearing young foxes put her into the boiling pot on the stove, turn her on the fireplace spit, and pop her into the warm oven, attempting--but failing--to prepare her for eating. Mrs. Hedgehog is an unsuspecting sweetie, believing she's being given a bath, dried out, and warmed up for the neighborly breakfast together. When the parents return with flowers for their guest, the confused children take it all in stride as the hosts and their guests sit down to their oatmeal and muffins. Delightfully detailed watercolor and acrylic artwork covers nearly two-thirds of the pages in charming domestic scenes recalling Jan Brett's animal world, but without those sometimes overly precious qualities. --Catherine vanSonnenberg, LaJolla Country Day School, CA
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Card catalog description
Papa's statement that he would like to have Mrs. Hedgehog for breakfast leads George and Charles to try to cook her in their kitchen, but their guest does not seem to realize that they intend her for the main course.

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Mississippi Mud: Three Prairie Journals

by: Ann Turner

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-6?To describe this book simply as a collection of poetry would be an injustice. This is historical fiction in the form of verse. The poems portray the feelings, experiences, and observations of three pioneer children in a family leaving a barren farm in Kentucky for the hope of free, rich soil in Oregon. The images Turner creates are stunning. The lone survivor of an ambush comes out of an ox-hide tent "foot first, like a babe born the wrong way." The sky is as "pink as our baby's face." In "Jake," a poem about the family dog who trotted beside the wagon until his body simply wore out, the young narrator tersely reveals his grief with honest emotion. "Columbia" describes the birth of the youngest child in a wagon en route. Ma's cries were "like birds being killed in the sky." The baby on her chest was "a red scrap that mewled and howled just like a cat." Blake's watercolor illustrations elegantly capture the scenery in warm earth tones with a delightful attention to detail. One picture shows the cold air blowing from the nose of a horse mounted for an early morning ride. In others, the children's faces evoke the fear, the joy, and the pensiveness expressed in the poems. Some books are breathtaking in every respect. This is one of them.?Jackie Hechtkopf, Talent House School, Fairfax,
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4^-8. As she did in Grass Songs (1993), Turner personalizes the nineteenth-century movement west with plainspoken poems in the voices of ordinary people. This time, the focus is on one family's journey from Kentucky to Oregon, told through the journals kept by the three older children. There is not much to distinguish the three journals in voice or subject. Amanda dreams of freedom, where she can run and shout "with no one to tell me / I was not a lady." Her brothers also dream of home and adventure. Together they tell the family story of the heartbreaking leaving ("Gran and Grandpa gripping the porch rail / as if they could not stand"); the crucial events on the way (including the death of their dog and the birth of their baby sister in the wagon); and, finally, their arrival in a new land to build a home. The poems are printed on Blake's handsome double-page paintings that show the pioneer wagon moving across the prairie in sunlight and shadow, the strong, hopeful people looking out at grass and sky. Hazel Rochman

Release Date: 04/11/1997

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Occupational Therapy and Physical Dysfunction: Principles, Skills and Practice

by: Ann Turner, Margaret Foster

Book Info
Univ. College Northampton, UK. Text provides a comprehensive introduction to the role and work of the occupational therapist in the field of physical rehabilitation. This edition contains sections including, foundations of practice, skills, principles for practice, and practice. For students. Previous edition: c1996. Softcover. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Street Talk

by: Ann Turner

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Abe Lincoln Picture Book Set (Abe Lincoln The Boy Who Loved Books, Abe Lincoln Remembers)

by: Ann Turner

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Et moi, j'étais trop petite...

by: Ann Turner

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Nettie's Trip South (Scholastic Book Guides Grades 3-5)

by: Ann Turner

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Finding Walter

by: Ann Turner

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