Work and More Work

by Linda Little, Óscar Pérez (Illustrator)

Overview

Tom lives in the countryside in the mid 1800s and he’s curious — what is it like in the town, the city and the world beyond? It’s all “work and more work,” everyone tells him. Determined to find out for himself, Tom sets off with a bit of bread and cheese in a bundle…

He encounters crowded marketplaces, bustling wharves and storms on the high seas. In China he sees how tea is made; in India he watches men make deep blue dye from indigo; in Ceylon he marvels at the skill of cinnamon peelers. Eventually, he returns home with stories and gifts, showing his parents the riches to be found all over the world.

Includes an illustrated afterword about the different kinds of work mentioned in the story when, in the days before steam, nothing moved except through the power of wind, water and muscle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554983834
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	03/01/2015
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD790L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Linda Little is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer. This is her first picture book. She lives in River John, Nova Scotia.

Óscar T. Pérez has illustrated a number of children’s books with his distinctive style, which have been published in Spain, France and Brazil. His work also appears in newspapers, advertising and animation. He lives in Valladolid, Spain.

Editorial Reviews

01/26/2015
The icy silvers and grays of Pérez’s artwork give the pages of Little’s first picture book a chilly look, but readers—like Tom, the story’s hero—should forge ahead regardless. Tom’s family has nothing but discouraging words for him when he asks about life in town: “It’s the same everywhere,” his mother snaps. “Work and more work.” But he sets off anyway, and finds that strangers order him about (“You boy.... Help me stack these crates on my barge!”), he doesn’t mind obeying, and his willingness to work can take him anywhere he wants to go. He ventures to sea, reaching China, India, and Ceylon, where he discovers tea, indigo, and cinnamon, respectively. The tacked-on information about the products of these countries seems unnecessary—the heart of the story is Tom’s mastery of his own fate. Pérez’s three-masted ships and visions of far-off lands (the only place he uses flashes of saturated color) provide plenty of visual sustenance. Readers will be surprised to find that some 19th-century children (well, some boys, anyway) may have had more freedom than they do. Ages 6–9. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

The natural curiosity of a boy growing up in the countryside leads him to discover an unimaginable world beyond his isolated home.

Booklist

Filled with exquisite illustrations . . . [a] fascinating industrial travelogue from the 19th century.

Cooperative Children's Book Center

Linda Little’s rich language leads readers on a wonderful odyssey of sights and sounds. . . . A delightful book for storytellers and younger independent readers.

CM Magazine

"Down at the waterfront Tom stared at the magnificent ships.
'What’s it like at sea?' he asked a passing sailor.
'Haul the sheets and tend the rigging, boy. It’s all work and more work.'
Even so, thought Tom as he stared out at the wide ocean, I will go to sea." — from the book



"A young traveler discovers a world of wonders hidden in a seemingly ordinary word." — Kirkus Reviews

"Filled with exquisite illustrations . . . [a] fascinating industrial travelogue from the 19th century." — Cooperative Children's Book Center

"Pérez’s three-masted ships and visions of far-off lands provide plenty of visual sustenance. Readers will be surprised to find that some 19th-century children may have had more freedom than they do." — Publishers Weekly

"The natural curiosity of a boy growing up in the countryside leads him to discover an unimaginable world beyond his isolated home." — Booklist

"Linda Little’s rich language leads readers on a wonderful odyssey of sights and sounds. . . . A delightful book for storytellers and younger independent readers." — CM Magazine

From the Publisher

2015-01-10
A young traveler discovers a world of wonders hidden in a seemingly ordinary word.Though assured by his industrious parents that there is nothing beyond their rural cottage but "work and more work," Tom sets out to see for himself. Odd jobs eventually lead him to sail off to encounter tea in China, indigo in a busy Indian marketplace and cinnamon in tropical Ceylon. Years later he returns to tell his parents that all over the world "people are busy making beautiful things." "I told you so," responds his mother. "Wherever you go—just work and more work." The narrative is a bare recitation of events, but in her afterword, Little explains that she visualizes Tom as starting out near Liverpool around 1840, then goes on to describe in some detail his parents' occupations and how tea, indigo and cinnamon were harvested and prepared for export at that time. Showing technical dazzle but a fussy sensibility, Pérez renders foliage, architectural features and period dress in precise, superfine detail but gives human figures oversized heads, studied gestures, and tiny hands and feet. Moreover, though Tom is supposedly gone long enough to become "a young man and quite different from the boy who had left," in the illustrations he ages not at all, greeting his parents wearing the same clothes he set out in. Stylized and idealized but with some potential as a discussion starter. (Picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews