The Story of the Search for the Story

The team that toured art history in Anna's Art Adventure here tackles the world of literature in a book better suited to adults. Young Henry begins to read a story to his uncle when he discovers the pages are blank. Sent off to the library to find the missing contents, he catches a paper airplane bearing the words ""HELP! Authors seek a main character. We need a brave young man in a stylish cap."" Henry claps on a green cap and soon Knut Hamsun and James Joyce appear, as Henry becomes the main character in a series of encounters with famous men and women of letters, including Virginia Woolf, Hemingway and, perhaps the author children have the best chance of recognizing, Antoine de Saint-Exup ry. Sortland shoehorns in bits drawn from the various authors' own works (e.g., Proust mourns some lost madeleines), but most allusions will soar right over the heads of the book's intended audience (though Pippi Longstocking makes an appearance as the madeleines thief). He lays a further egg with a heavy-handed message about censorship and freedom of speech (here Salman Rushdie shows up). Even Elling's artwork, though varied slightly to suit the highlighted authors (who appear as clever caricatures), has a preponderance of dark and brooding hues. All ages. (Apr.)