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About Our ForestTold in fun rhyming verse and detailed with beautiful illustrations, Our Forest delves into the lives of four woodland friends as they work together to overcome problems they encounter. There's the unlikely duo of Clarence the Bear and Porky the Porcupine, tackling the challenge of obtaining salt and honey. Reynold and Gerald, a cunning pair of foxes who can barely be told apart, devise a scheme to overcome the pack of hunting dogs that are after them. The stories of these four friends are a treat to read aloud as they demonstrate the importance of cooperation and friendship.
This book seems made to be read aloud, as it’s written in well-timed, descriptive verse: “The atmosphere is hushed and dark, / A jungle made of leaves and bark.” Reynold’s and Gerald’s names both evoke the fabled Reynard the fox—a clever tidbit that lovers of folktales will undoubtedly appreciate. The pleasant poems are punctuated with gentle, earth-toned, uncredited illustrations of the animals and their surroundings, lovingly rendered in a careful stylistic balance between realism and cartoonish fun. Overall, the book shows a clear respect for nature, nodding to humanity’s relationship with the outdoors in a preface poem. Writing complicated stories in rhyme is very difficult. Robert Loeffler Frank's rhymes are fluid and organic, never sacrificing the narrative flow or logic for the sake of sticking to a pre-conceived rhyming scheme. Instead, his stories and descriptions seem to flow organically within the framework of the rhyme, and are just as readable (if not more so) as a story told in straight prose. He manages to make what are actually fairly complicated rhymes seem simple, and has a wonderful instinct for knowing where line breaks should be, and how narrative poetry needs to work, on a fundamental level. It seems to beg to be read aloud, and I admit to giving in to that urging, simply for pleasure's sake. This is an incredibly rare thing. |
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Purchase Our ForestOur Forest is available through the following retailers:
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About Nancy B. FrankNancy B. Frank is the daughter of Robert Loeffler Frank, the author of Our Forest. Only recently did she find her father’s children’s stories written in poem form hidden away in a folder in a filing cabinet. It was a precious find as she hadn’t realized the stories, vivid in her memory, had actually been transcribed. It is with great pride that she can honor her father by publishing his tales.
Nancy B. Frank is an artist/painter living in Telluride Colorado with 3 cats, 2 horses and a chocolate lab named “Loeffler”. She has also published Up Close and Personal; a photo book of her equine paintings. You can find out more about Nancy on her website: www.nancybfrank.com.
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