Run Far, Run FastILLUSTRATED BY Ages: All ages Pages: 40 List Price: $17.95 Cover: Hardcover Published: 10/1/2007 ISBN: 1-59078-469-3 ISBN-13: 978-1-59078-469-3 |
The Pestilence has arrived. With it come death and fear, hiding and desperation. A young girl is hastened out of her dying town and told by her mother, “Run far, run fast.” The child obeys and travels from village to castle, castle to countryside, in search of shelter. Wherever she turns, the Pestilence has already appeared. Scared and tired, she finally meets a stranger who knows something of this plague. He is kind and learned, but the girl cannot know whether his knowledge will be enough to save her family. Timothy Decker explores the bleak yet breathtaking world of fourteenth-century Europe in this quiet story of hope during desolation. Stark pen-and-ink drawings emphasize the realism of this romanticized period, and straightforward prose creates a truly haunting tale. Reviews"Treading a narrow line between picture book and graphic novel, Decker employs the strengths of both formats to convey a sense of desperation and, ultimately, hope. ...The power of the story springs from the book’s picture-book simplicity of layout, composition, and text. The open space in the pictures, the brevity of the prose, and the darkness of the subject matter capture the isolation people feel in desperate times, but the story never loses track of the fact that, while there may be no assurances, there is power and hope in human kindness. Echoing issues examined in Decker’s The Letter Home (2005), this profound tale best suits advanced readers prepared for its subtle, potent message" "Gripping." "If David Macaulay fictionalized medieval family life in a plague year, he might produce something like this solemn graphic narrative, set in 1348. Decker sets the stage gracefully... As in his The Letter Home, an idiosyncratic account of WWI, Decker imagines a famously horrific situation and replaces terror with unsettling quietude." "Decker combines elements of a picture book and graphic novel, alternating a more traditional text page with one of a central image surrounded by vignettes. An intriguing title." |
