ReviewsBagram Ibatoulline was born in Russia, graduated from the State Academic Institute of Arts in Moscow, and has worked in the fields of fine arts, graphic arts, mural design, and textile design. He has illustrated CROSSING by Philip Booth, an American Library Association Notable Children's Book, and THE NIGHTINGALE by Hans Christian Andersen as retold by Stephen Mitchell. He says, "As I was working on THE ANIMAL HEDGE, I was most influenced by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American folk art. I appreciate the naivete of those untrained painters." From the Trade Paperback edition.
Grade FromFirst Grade
SynopsisNewbery Medalist Paul Fleischman's testament to vision, passion, and destiny is beautifully complemented by folk art-inspired paintings by the virtuoso Bagram Ibatoulline. There once lived a farmer whose heart glowed like a hot wood stove with the love of animals. No one loved animals more than the farmer. All day long, he and his three sons toiled on the farm, singing while they worked. The eldest son favored coachman's songs; the second son, songs of the sea; the youngest son, tunes about a traveling fiddler; and the farmer, always, songs of the barnyard. But when a terrible drought befalls the land, the farmer must sell his livestock and move to a tiny cottage with only a hedge around it. Though he is heartbroken to lose his animals, he and his sons soon discover something remarkable about their hedge - and something unique about each person who trims its branches., After being forced to sell the animals he loves, a farmer cuts his hedge to look like them and teaches his sons about following their hearts.
LC Classification NumberPZ7.F59918An 2003