Bookverdict.com

Gr 2-4 A lengthy tale of two orphans who are adopted by a stern farmer. Matthew and Anna's gray lives are full of work and despair. They look forward to winter when they can attend school, but it fails to provide the joy they seek. As they begin to lose all hope, the children are saved by a red bird that leads them to a magical world where ther...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The pathos of orphaned siblings Matthew and Anna's situation is encapsulated early on in Törnqvist's exquisitely bleak farmscape, a rocky, gray-brown mass of fields, trees, and dilapidated buildings that engulfs the two children standing at the bottom of the painting. Here, in the village of Myra, Matthew and Anna have come to live with a farmer who works them mercilessly. Lindgren's imagistic text, written ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More