They learn, too, that her grandfather supported her education and accepted her desire to see the world at a time when women’s options were often limited to the domestic sphere. They learn that she was the grandchild of an immigrant artist who charged her with aesthetic responsibility. As the years pass by, the “lupine lady,” as she becomes known in old age, lives in a cabin overlooking the ocean and tells her story to the next generation of self-aware and environmentally conscious children. A childhood admonition from her grandfather, which Miss Rumphius remembers throughout her life, holds wisdom that a gardener may readily affirm: “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”Ĭasting lupine seeds here and there throughout her seaside town is Miss Rumphius’ gift of beauty. There is a vicarious pleasure in lingering over Cooney’s illustrations of an eccentric, middle-aged heroine, Miss Rumphius, hiking with her cat along fields brimming with spires of the pink, purple and blue lupine flowers whose seeds she has sown. Stephanie Sipp, illustrator The Literary Gardenerīarbara Cooney’s Miss Rumphius (1982) is a picture book sure to charm gardeners and artists who enjoy reading to children or grandchildren.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |