Frederick

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: For twenty years I remembered this beautiful story and told it to friends. As my little girl began to read I ached for this book, to encourage both her love of words and love of play. All I could remember was that there was a "leo" in it, and I thought Leo was the "lazy" mouse.

I recently found another book by Lionni in a used bookstore, and immediately recognized it's author by the illustrations. There was, after all, a "leo" involved. Perhaps I wasn't so far off in confusing the "lazy", imaginative mouse with the book's author! :)

I am so glad this book is still in print and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful introduction to the value of poetry for all ages
Review: Frederick is the story of a mouse whose preparations for winter include gathering sunbeams instead of grains. When all their winter stores are used up Frederick warms the hearts and stomachs of his mouse family with a poem capturing the warmth and color of summer. This book introduces the value of poetry and spiritual food to readers of all ages with timeless illustrations.

Rating:
Summary: Frederick understands quality of life....
Review: Frederick seems to be lazy and self-centered. However, he is the free spirit, the artist, the dreamer, the one who stops to smell the roses. When winter comes, he shares all the richness he saved up, bringing warmth to everyone else's heart and soul and teaching us to appreciate diversity. Great for Fall themes, enrichment for mammal themes (mice) or seasons, and for teaching us to look for the value in others, even when it is hard to find. I love this book and use it in many different ways with many different ages of children.

Rating:
Summary: Frederick understands quality of life....
Review: Frederick seems to be lazy and self-centered. However, he is the free spirit, the artist, the dreamer, the one who stops to smell the roses. When winter comes, he shares all the richness he saved up, bringing warmth to everyone else's heart and soul and teaching us to appreciate diversity. Great for Fall themes, enrichment for mammal themes (mice) or seasons, and for teaching us to look for the value in others, even when it is hard to find. I love this book and use it in many different ways with many different ages of children.

Rating:
Summary: a must-read for all children
Review: I am happy to read among the reviews that this book has been as important in other people's childhoods as it was in mine. I never owned the book but would borrow it from the library every single week. I could cite Fredericks poem at the end of the book and the story never lost its appeal. I purchased it for myself when I was 22 and I am happy I did.

Leo Lionni has the rare gift of creating a wonderful story with little means, keeping it simple and yet rich. A review complained how this book doesn't promote children to do their chores, and I don't think this person has understood the book, which is sad. Lionni does not intend to moralize, he only wants to show that there are many things that are important in life. Food is important, but so is hope. Frederick is just the mouse who can bring back hope in his fellow mice when all hope seems to be lost. He fills their hearts with warmth and sunshine when he tells them to closer their eyes, imagine the warmth of the sun and the colors of spring. How can you not think this is a beautiful book??

Rating:
Summary: The single most important book of my childhood
Review: I and my sister grew up with Frederick as one of the most sacred books in our childhood canon. Recently, while shuffling through boxes of ancient heirlooms, I came across the simple, unassuming cover of Frederick (in 1977 the cover showed only the back of Frederick in the lower right corner, gazing into the distance, and no title), and immediately a serene peace overcame me. I couldn't believe I had forgotten about this book. I sat down and read it again, and from a distance of twenty years it still resonated with me. This book brought calm and joy into my heart as a child, and did so again as I read it today. I can't think of any better recommendation for a book than that.

In terms of content, the story of Frederick is simple. In a community narrowly focused on efficiency, one mouse stands apart and concerns himself with art. Frederick notes the wonder of the world he lives in, and takes the time to assimilate it. While his cohorts may grumble at this behavior, when the dreariness of winter overtakes them they are grateful for Frederick's words. Frederick's poetry is seen as an essential supply for survival.

The illustrations are simple and yet extremely expressive -- witness my instant emotional reaction to a cover that was ninety-percent blank space -- and the wording is likewise concise. But the emotional impact of this book is what sets it apart. Out of sixty or seventy books I thumbed through today, I pulled out six that I felt defined my childhood. This book was at the top of the stack.

Rating:
Summary: Frederick
Review: I can't read this book to children without getting all choked up. The children then look up at me like I'm crazy.

Rating:
Summary: Encouraging children's creativity
Review: In a children's bookstore, I once heard a father tell his son to put back a picture book because it was "garbage." Maybe he saw the shocked look on my face, because he started lecturing me about how children today need to learn a lot of things and they don't have time to waste on fairy tales and other stories.

Unfortunately, his point of view is becoming more common. It looks like this generation of children is going to grow up in a world that cares more about their ability to memorize facts and formulas and regurgitate them for standardized tests than it cares about their ideas and imaginations.

Leo Lionni's books - especially Frederick - are great antidotes to that narrow mindset.

Frederick is an artistic and imaginative little mouse. While his family gathers food for the winter, Frederick sits around observing. The other mice criticize him for being lazy, but Frederick insists that what he's doing is important - he's collecting words and colors. When winter finally comes, of course, the food Frederick's family gathered sustains them. But eventually the food runs out and it is Frederick's vivid memories of the colors of spring, as well as his poems and stories, that take the other mice's minds off their troubles and get them through the winter.

I don't think there's a better book about the importance of nurturing the imagination than Frederick. When Lionni first wrote it, in 1966, it became an instant classic. Today it's not just a great children's book, it's a crucial one.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful story about the power and value of imagination
Review: In a gentle and lyrical turn, Lionni's Frederick is the story of a family of mice preparing for winter. One mouse - Frederick - does not gather corn, nuts, and wheat along with the others and instead sits apart explaining that he is gathering sunrays, colors, and words. Although reproachful of his apparent idleness, in the depth of winter, the other mice come to appreciate Frederick's ability to entertain them by sparking their imaginations. Lionni employs color, texture, and shape in his collages comprised of torn and cut paper in solid colors and patterns pieced together into landscapes. Each collage stretches across both pages and bleeds to the edges of the page; by means of the layers of paper, the illustrations have an enormous sense of depth and presence. Visually, the illustrations dominate the pages, with the text appearing in the upper left corner. At times, the illustrations elaborate on Lionni's spare text, while at other times the illustrations offer an abstracted version of the concrete details mentioned in the text. In the final pages of the story, the integration of the text and images is complete, as the text itself becomes an element of the collage. Lionni's language is simple, appropriate for beginning readers, but poetic as well, as befits a book about a mouse-poet. Ultimately, Frederick encourages us to respect others' differences and reminds us of the power and value of imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Frederick nurtures the soul
Review: In this world where our children and grandchildren are being pressured to "produce more, bigger, better, faster" -- in this world of buzzwords like "measurable results" -- Frederick is a haven of comfort and food for the child's imaginitive soul. For all of those children and parents who have a dreamer's spirit and a poet's soul, this is a lovely book. I read it to my chidren, and now that I have grandkids coming along I have bought copies for each of them.