Reviews

The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell, Maurice Sendak

scaifea's review against another edition

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4.0

A hunter living in a cottage near the sea falls in love with a mermaid, who comes to live with him. They adopt a bear cub, a lynx kitten and a little boy and live happily ever after.
A sweet and simply told story with nicely drawn characters and lovely illustrations by Maurice Sendak.

avianautumnus's review against another edition

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Knew there was a reason I used to like this one so much. It's beautiful, and I want to take it with me when I go.

eleneariel's review against another edition

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4.0

Too sophisticated to be a children's book, to simple to be for adults. I don't know what to do with it, but I love this lyrical, unexpected, and poetic book.

kesterbird's review against another edition

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5.0

I've been slowly working my way through reading anything that Sendal illustrated. it's not a flawless system for finding good books, but it's slightly better than random, and it introduces me to authors I otherwise might not have read.

And in this case, it really paid off. This book is quiet and gentle and sweet and full of the real sort of long lasting work that love really is. Of course, the illustrations -are- also great, but they are secondary; this book is an unassuming work of genius and I recommend it for everyone.

rrrrj's review

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5.0

Beautiful. Perfect before-bed reading for all ages. A must-read if you have a fondness for mermaids or bears, or if you'd like to develop one.

luann's review

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5.0

What a sweet and interesting story! I expected more of an ending, but overall I really enjoyed this. I would have LOVED this as a child. My one question while I was reading is how did the mermaid get around so easily on land?

This was a Newbery Honor winner in 1966.

bkgunderson's review

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5.0

A charming book about the ways that family comes together and creates bonds, through adventures, curiosity, willingness to adopt others' languages and ways of living, and shared story-telling (and retelling).

samtee222's review

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3.0

The book is more of a children's book. It was enjoyable but I wouldn't read it again. I could not really get that into it because of how unrealistic it was...I know you read books to escape and go into a unrealistic world but this book was way out there.

The only reason why I read the book was because I was at a friends house and she just happen to have it laying around, so I picked it up and started reading it. It took me two days to read it. It wouldn't have took that long if it was for the fact that, that house has always got something going on and it gets really detracting sometimes.
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