The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Charters, Janet

The General

48 pp. | Candlewick/Templar | February, 2010 | Trade ISBN 978-0-7636-4875-6 $16.99
Reissue (1961, Dutton)

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Michael Foreman. This reissue of the first book Foreman illustrated (published in 1961 when he was in art school) tells of a general who sees the error of his ways. After spending a day in the countryside admiring the flowers, he sends his soldiers home to cultivate their own communities. Foreman's striking watercolor and gouache illustrations, although dated, are the strength of this morality tale.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth