Henry Works
By D.B. Johnson
(Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Hardcover, 9780618420032, 32pp.)
Publication Date: September 2004
Categories: Animals - Bears, Nature & the Natural World - General
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Without Henry, wildflowers would go unwatered in dry weather and rivers would have no crossing stones. Without him, who would bring news of coming storms?
Henry works, but no one seems to notice.
“You’re not doing anything today,” his friend says. “Come fishing with me.” “Not today,” says Henry as he digs up a healing plant for a neighbor. Though he never gets paid, Henry works for more than money.
In this fourth book about Henry David Thoreau, D. B. Johnson’s quiet story flows through morning’s mist to evening’s glow, when, at last, Henry’s most important work is revealed!
D. B. Johnson has been a freelance illustrator for more than twenty years and has done editorial cartoons, comic strips, and conceptual illustrations for magazines and newspapers around the country. Mr. Johnson’s first picture book, Henry Hikes to Fitchburg, was a New York Times bestseller and a Publishers Weekly bestseller, as well as an American Bookseller “Pick of the Lists.” Henry Hikes to Fitchburg also won numerous awards, including the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Picture Books and the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. Mr. Johnson and his wife, Linda, live in New Hampshire.
Again, an unassuming, deeply affecting tribute to an essential philosopher and writer.
Kirkus Reviews, Starred
With a quiet humor and attention to natural settings, Johnson respectfully conveys Thoreau's philosophy of simplicity.
Publishers Weekly, Starred
The illustrations are both charming and a graphic tour de force...that evoke the many moods of a summer day.
Horn Book
Young readers will appreciate Henry's endeavors, and commisterate with him.
School Library Journal
Fans of the series will happily follow the amiable bear as he ambles the countryside. Booklist, ALA
This title offers subtle reassurance that things that don't read like work can be quite important; kids who have had their diligent efforts to keep their worlds in order go unnoticed will feel a kinship with this observant, tireless bear.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
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