Serpent's Tale
By Crew, Gary
, illustrated by Ottley, Matt
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Description:
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This is a carefully designed,
multi-layered picture book for older readers. At the most literal level
of the story, a boy demands that his mother buy a bracelet or amulet at
a fair in the town square. The artifact looks like a snake chasing or
devouring its own tail in an endless cycle. Alone in his attic room,
the boy puts the bracelet on and falls asleep. At this, the snake comes
to life in the boy s dreaming, thus telling its story. Even as the boy
sees visions in his dreaming, through his open attic window, we, the
readers, look down on the town square and see high drama. Invaders
attack the town and rob the boy s house as he sleeps, a girl is rescued
from the attic window opposite, there are scenes of heroism and death
these events might be what leads the boy to dispose of the charm when
he wakes, taking it for a bad omen But what is real and what is not?
Are the boy s fantastic snake-induced dreams the real events, or the
events that we see at the real-life story level, taking place in the
town square? The snake serves as a metaphor for story and narrative
itself story as world-creating, eternal, terrifying at times, but
sublimely beautiful. |
| Subject |
DRAMA |
| ISBN |
9780734410283 |
| Publisher |
Lothian Children's Books |
| Publication Year |
2010 |
| Place of Publication |
Australia |
| Call Number |
C |
| Media |
Book |
| Binding |
Hardback |
| Price |
$28.99 |
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