About the Author

D. B. Johnson has been a freelance illustrator for more than twenty years and has done editorial cartoons, comic strips, and conceptual illustrations for magazines and newspapers around the country. Mr. Johnson's first picture book, Henry Hikes to Fitchburg, was a New York Times bestseller and a Publishers Weekly bestseller, as well as an American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists." Henry Hikes to Fitchburg also won numerous awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Picture Books and the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. Mr. Johnson and his wife, Linda, live in New Hampshire.

Reviews

"A masterpiece . . .The finest illustrations I've seen in years and years and years." --Daniel Pinkwater, NPR Weekend Edition "An auspicious picture book debut." --Horn Book Horn Book "This splendid book works on several levels. Johnson's adaptation of a paragraph taken from Thoreau's Walden illuminates the contrast between materialistic and naturalistic view of life without ranting or preaching. . . . [The illustrations] demonstrate Johnson's virtuosic control of his craft" --Booklist, starred review Booklist, ALA, Starred Review STAR "A nicely realized retelling of a short passage from Henry Thoreau's Walden." --School Library Journal, starred review School Library Journal, Starred A Publishers Weekly Flying Start Publishers Weekly --

Freelance illustrator Johnson models his striking debut on a passage from Walden, in which Thoreau advocates journeying on foot over buying a ticket to ride. Henry, a brown bear attired in a brick-red duster and wide-brimmed sun hat, is a kinder, gentler fellow than his cantankerous inspiration. His ursine friend, wearing town clothes and conspicuously toting a pocket watch, makes plans to meet him in Fitchburg, a town 30 miles distant. Spreads contrast the pair's respective travel strategies: on the left, Henry's friend does chores for unseen Mrs. Alcott, Mr. Hawthorne and Mr. Emerson to earn train fare; right-handed pages picture a leisurely Henry examining flora and fauna, admiring the view and excavating a honey tree as he strides toward his destination. At the end of the summer day, "His friend sat on the train in a tangle of people./ Henry ate his way through a blackberry patch." Johnson inventively demonstrates Thoreau's advice with kaleidoscopic illustrations in variegated colors and gently skewed perspectives that weigh fast-paced urban existence against an unmaterialistic life in the woods. Both bears make it to Fitchburg, but Henry's friend wears a blank stare, in contrast to Henry's bright-eyed, curious gaze. Johnson implies what money can and cannot buy, and encourages slowing down to experience nature. With graceful understatement, he presents some complicated ideas assuredly and accessibly. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

"A masterpiece . . .The finest illustrations I've seen in years and years and years." --Daniel Pinkwater, NPR Weekend Edition "An auspicious picture book debut." --Horn Book Horn Book "This splendid book works on several levels. Johnson's adaptation of a paragraph taken from Thoreau's Walden illuminates the contrast between materialistic and naturalistic view of life without ranting or preaching. . . . [The illustrations] demonstrate Johnson's virtuosic control of his craft" --Booklist, starred review Booklist, ALA, Starred Review STAR "A nicely realized retelling of a short passage from Henry Thoreau's Walden." --School Library Journal, starred review School Library Journal, Starred A Publishers Weekly Flying Start Publishers Weekly --