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A Boy Asked the Wind Kindle Edition

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

A spectacular picture book, with text in subtly linked beautifully composed four-line stanzas, evoking winds around the world, including those in the Canadian west, off the coast of Central America, Capetown, and the Middle East. The illustrations are muscular, organic, powerful evocations of the power of those winds.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The beautiful mixed-media illustrations are a good match for the lyrical prose."
Kirkus Reviews

"In this celebration of the winds of the world, poet Barbara Nickel embeds a subtle message of global unity and peace. . . Nickel's poetry is stunning, vibrant with verbs and gerunds. . . The pictures are energetic and give us information about the various locations."
Quill and Quire

"A beautiful story about where the wind lives. . . Young readers will enjoy learning about the wind in this rhythmic picture book."
KidsBookshelf

"A Boy Asked the Wind should be on every school and child's bookshelf as a powerful read about nature's airstreams but more as the supremacy of wind to shape our worlds and those of others."
CanLit for LittleCanadians

"Libraries contain several books on tornadoes and hurricanes, but this is the first book I have seen for young people which discusses other types of winds. The long, rectangular pages of the story are illustrated with double page spreads. They look painterly in design. The shape and pattern of the visible winds match the descriptive words in the author's text."
Resource Links Magazine

"As an award-winning poet, Barbara Nickel brings a sophisticated, nuanced elegance to the text, making A Boy Asked the Wind more than merely a study in meteorology. . . Gillian Newland's watercolour illustrations vividly capture the changing personality of the wind, as well as the very different landscapes.
Highly Recommended."
CM Magazine

About the Author

Barbara Nickel is the critically acclaimed author of Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach. She is the author of several young adult novels as well as an acclaimed poet.

Gillian Newland is an artist based in Toronto, Ontario. She works mostly in watercolor, ink and pencils.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B095L4TML5
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Red Deer Press; 1st edition (October 21, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 21, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 26576 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 40 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2016
Beautiful, well-written book. Fun, accessible book that personifies the wind and gives lots of interesting information about how wind blows on our planet. Kids from 3-10 in our family were enthralled, and I as an adult also enjoyed it and learned from it. Sometimes books that try to give a lot of factual information end up dry and preachy - A Boy Asked the Wind stays fresh, rhythmic and interesting all the way through. Love it!
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2016
So, I bought this book kind of for me, kind of for my 5-year-old nephew. I love the artist (Gillian Newland) and thought I'd give the book a try without reading it due to me really loving the artist. The art, as I expected, is phenomenal.

The book just isn't what I expected as a children's book - and that isn't exactly a bad thing, but just not what I would've picked for my nephew. It has some more advanced concepts, like referencing some algal blooms (I'm not sure my nephew could fully grasp what that means), pollution, and is very anti-war in a very strong way. I like the anti-war concept in theory, but the execution of this (within a children's book) seems a bit harsh. There is some warlike imagery, some tanks and blurs. It shows it as very chaotic, but also those scenes are a little more upsetting because they relate it back to the narrator, saying that a boy the narrator's age is crying for his soldier father. I realize this is the reality of those situations, but it is presented in a way that makes it seem like a futile fact - that nothing can be done about it.

I'd say it is a book for kids a bit older. Maybe 8 and up? It is very serious, and ends on that note. While it had some magic in the beginning, I feel like optimism is a little drowned out at the end. I guess I was just hoping for something that gave the protagonist more choice - like showing some influence this child could achieve. This is not a happy-go-lucky style of book. It tackles some very serious tones about how the world belongs to everyone. It can definitely be a teaching book, in that it doesn't dumb things down and takes on those serious problems in a more simplistic way.

All in all, I'm keeping the book more for its artwork than the story, I think. It seems to tell instead of show and just seems a bit heavy-handed to me.
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2015
The illustrations by Gillian Newland is beautiful! Can't wait to give this as a gift to my niece and nephew!
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