Greenling

by Levi Pinfold

Overview

A modern fable about nature's power from a Kate Greenaway Medal winner

Mr. Barleycorn picks a green baby growing on his land, unleashing the incredible power of nature. When zucchinis flower in the kitchen and carrots sprout out of their television, Mr. Barleycorn’s wife insists that the Greenling has to go. But the bounty and beauty of nature have a strange power — the power to bring a whole community together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763675981
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	02/23/2016
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.80(w) x 11.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Levi Pinfold’s debut picture book, The Django, won a Book Trust Early Years Award and was described by author-illustrator Michael Foreman as “a virtuoso display of real drawing.” He is also the creator of Black Dog, winner of a Kate Greenaway Medal.

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2015
Pinfold’s (Black Dog) finely worked paintings distinguish this story about a babylike “Greenling” who makes fruit and vegetables grow everywhere. Mr. Barleycorn finds what looks like a giant artichoke near his house under an elevated railway line and comes home with a bright green baby, which he settles in a mound of soil in the kitchen (“We can’t leave him outside for the crows,” he tells his wife). Surreal, marvelously detailed spreads reveal the Greenling’s gratitude; melons twine through the kitchen, and apples grow in the living room. The man welcomes the bounty, but his wife grouses. Yet the next morning, as the railway is overtaken by vines and the neighbors complain, she defends the strange infant: “We should welcome this Greenling into our house/ we’ve been living in his all along!” The Greenling is nature’s bounty personified, it is clear; after delivering autumn plenty for all, he disappears, though Pinfold hints at more to come. The verse-text is oddly heavy-handed, and the allegorical nature of the story keeps the characters at a distance, but Pinfold’s vision of the natural world breaking free of human fetters is captivating. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

This ecological fable, a British import, has the folkloric atmosphere of Pinfold's Kate Greenaway Medal-winning Black Dog (2012)...Chilling and thought-provoking, this picture book for older readers invites discussion.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The rhyme scheme is gentle and soothing, and Pinfold’s luminous mixed-media illustrations are gloriously strange. This fable about the power of the outside world and the balance between technology and nature is important, and the story itself is haunting and austere.
—Booklist (starred review)

Pinfold’s vision of the natural world breaking free of human fetters is captivating.
—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 2015-11-17
When a green baby creature appears on their remote Australian farm, the Barleycorns take it in, nurture it, and become part of its natural world—at least for a season. The intricate paintings in this haunting fantasy have an ominous edge right from the sepia-toned title page that shows a small wooden farmhouse snug against a railroad trestle in an otherwise vast and empty landscape. In the story, after the husband takes the baby in, he, his wary wife, and even commuters stranded at their farm by the sudden rampant expansion of all growing things, enjoy the fruits of a lush summer. But the Greenling is a creature of summer, and when fall comes, he, like the growing plants, disappears, leaving who knows what to come. A final double-page spread shows wind vanes instead of power lines, green grass and small flowers growing, but no visible humans. The rhyme and insistent rhythmic pulse of the text add a sense of inevitability. This ecological fable, a British import, has the folkloric atmosphere of Pinfold's Kate Greenaway Medal-winning Black Dog (2012). It will have sinister overtones for those who know that according to folklore, John Barleycorn's life ends with folks drinking his blood, but most readers will simply enjoy the artist's surreal vision and detailed imagery, which includes surprising Australian fauna. Chilling and thought-provoking, this picture book for older readers invites discussion. (Picture book. 9 & up)

Kirkus Reviews

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