On the Small Hill Where the Girls Take Off Their Shoes

Gr 2-4–The small hill where three girls now take off their shoes and watch the sun set has been host to all manner of events through the eons. A dinosaur once stood there and saw a falling star. A herd of buffalo froze to death. A castle was built and then crumbled. A family rested during their flight from war. Trees were cut down to build a village and a new tree planted, providing the shade that shelters the girls who sit on the small hill today. The bare minimum of matter-of-fact text describes these glimpses of the same place down through time. Static illustrations created with monotype, drawing, and collage center the hill on every righthand page, showing it at different times of day and the physical changes upon it over the centuries. The net effect may lack immediacy for young readers, who will wonder where the rest of the story is about the buffalo who froze to death, the family fleeing from war, the sad man walking his dog, the girls who sit on the hill and then go home.