Barry Lee Johnson
Autor(a) de The Visit of the Tomten
Obras de Barry Lee Johnson
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Sexo
- male
Membros
Resenhas
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Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 3
- Membros
- 15
- Popularidade
- #708,120
- Avaliação
- 2.0
- Resenhas
- 1
- ISBNs
- 3
Published in 1981, The Visit of the Tomten is the only tomten story with which I am familiar, to be written and illustrated by Americans. I was quite curious to see what it would be like, but unfortunately I found it something of a disappointment. The story itself is rather cumbersome, and somewhat preachy. This is perhaps not surprising, given that Johnson, who learnt of tomte while visiting a Christmas gift shop in his area, wrote it as his Christmas message for the church he led at the time - Shiloh Curch, in Dayton, Ohio. Intended as a sermon, the story here comes across like a sermon, and while I have certainly listened to and/or read sermons which I found engaging, this one didn't really appeal. There's nothing really wrong with the story, nothing I found objectionable, but it simply didn't have any of the sense of mystery and magic I have come to associate with tales of these diminutive gnome-like creatures of Swedish folklore. I had none of the gentle pleasure, in reading, that I did when perusing Astrid Lindgren's The Tomten and The Tomten and the Fox. Nor did I find the artwork by Edward Hageman, a member of Johnson's congregation, particularly appealing. It had a cartoon-like quality I found off-putting, especially when compared to the artwork of Harald Wiberg! I feel a little guilty for my rather harsh criticism of this one, because it feels very much like a self-produced community project, and no doubt had meaning for the members of that community, but I simply didn't get enough out of my reading experience to consider more than a two-star rating.… (mais)