Me, All Alone, at the End of the World

Description

From the celebrated picture-book team of M. T. Anderson and Kevin Hawkes comes a wistful, wondrous ode to the natural pleasures of peace and solitude. The boy lives alone at the End of the World, hunting treasure with old maps, finding fossils, whistling tunes, playing ball by the drop. It's a peaceful, contemplative life, and the boy is content. Until, that is, a self-styled Professional Visionary arrives and puts up a sign: CONSTANTINE SHIMMER'S GALVANO-MAGICAL END OF THE WORLD TOURS. FUN ALL THE TIME! Soon men with machines come to pave a clearing for the inn and theme park, and the touring children seem nice, but still. . . . M. T. Anderson's lyric homage to simplicity and self-reliance is brought to life in arresting detail by the masterful artwork of Kevin Hawkes, creating a fantastical yet evocative world sure to resonate with everyone who enters it.

M. T. Anderson is the author of several distinguished picture books, including Handel, Who Knew What He Liked, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, named an American Library Association Notable Children's Book and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, and The Serpent Came to Gloucester, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, a Junior Library Guild Selection. He is also the author of several young adult novels, including Feed, a National Book Award Finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Kevin Hawkes is the illustrator of numerous award-winning picture books, including Weslandia and Sidewalk Circus, both written by Paul Fleischman. Weslandia was named an American Library Association Notable Book and was a finalist for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Sidewalk Circus, also an American Library Association Notable Children's Book, won the Society of Illustrators Silver Medal.

Anderson's text is gloriously cadenced, celebrating simple pleasures even as it acknowledges the dangerous appeal of man-made attractions. -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)