About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherRoaring Brook Press

ISBN-100761315349

ISBN-139780761315346

eBay Product ID (ePID)2340234026

Product Key Features

Book TitleAcross a Dark and Wild Sea

Number of Pages32 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicBiography & Autobiography / Religious (See Also Religious / Christian / Biography & Autobiography), Religious, Books & Libraries, Books & Reading

Publication Year2002

IllustratorBrown, Don, Yes

FeaturesRevised

GenreLiterary Criticism, Juvenile Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography

AuthorDon Brown

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.4 in

Item Weight15.2 Oz

Item Length10.1 in

Item Width10 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceJuvenile Audience

LCCN2001-019355

Dewey Edition21

ReviewsPublishers Weekly Brown's lyrical narrative chronicles the life of Columcille, born to an Irish king in 521, and his passionate commitment to words and ideas. Though he grew up during the Dark Ages, when the new rulers of Ireland had virtually extinguished education ("Reading and writing were like magic, and the people who knew their secrets as rare as wizards"), Columcille from early childhood loved writing, which he mastered as a student in a monastery. He went on to become a monk as well as a skilled scribe and poet, and founded many monasteries. Brown laces historical facts with anecdotes from legends in his portrayal of this remarkable man, who exiled himself from his homeland after his kinsmen crushed the army of a High King, in defense of a manuscript. Columcille had painstakingly hand-lettered a Psalter (book of Psalms) and the king had ruled that the copy belonged to the owner of the original manuscript. In penitence for the bloodshed, Columcille decided to exile himself from his homeland, and ended up on the Scottish island of Iona, and there founded a monastery. He and the other resident scribes there devoted themselves to transcribing manuscripts, creating books that were then "dispatched, like small boats on a dark and wild sea, to places where reading and writing had been forgotten or ignored." Like the work of his subject, Brown's account also sheds light on an intriguing individual of extraordinary accomplishment. The author's signature stark, muted watercolors seem especially well suited to this hero's life of piety and his historical setting. Bulletin, Center for Children's Books Both involving and credible. . . Brown captures the monastic infighting and clan warfare, spiritual dedication and passionate defense of learning that have shaped Columcille's renown. Chill olive greens and khaki browns mistily tint watercolor scenes of monastery, battlefield, and swollen sea, softening to a more verdant hue for Columcille's final settlement on the Scottish island of Iona. Horn Book Brown's text is lilting, the sentences varied in length and intensity, making it suitable for reading aloud. But fine as it is, it has to take second place to the illustrations. They are almost dreamlike in quality-as if we were seeing the Dark Ages emerging from the mists. The watercolor medium is beautifully manipulated to achieve these effects; the page design is dramatic, particularly the double-page spread of Columcille's coracle battling the wild seas. Kirkus Reviews Starred Review Brown (A Voice from the Wilderness, 2001, etc.) continues his series of picture-book biographies of lesser-known figures with a tale of the life of Saint Columcille, the sixth century prince and monk better known by the Latin form of his name, Columba. In Ireland in Columcille's time, "Reading and writing were like magic, and the people who knew their secrets as rare as wizards. Columcille became one of them." When a former teacher, Finnian, would not permit him to copy a book of psalms, he did so in secret. The high king Diarmait ruled that the copy, too, belonged to Finnian and a fierce battle erupted. Though Columcille got his book back, he was devastated at the bloodshed, and took a leather boat to Iona, off the coast of Scotland. The monastery he founded there, and its scriptorium, dispatched books "like small boats on a dark and wild sea." Reading as magical and books worthy of being fought over are lovely lessons laid out in the powerful s

Grade FromFirst Grade

Grade ToFourth Grade

Dewey Decimal270.2/092 B

Edition DescriptionRevised edition

SynopsisColumcille was born in a remote corner of Ireland in the year 521. Legend has it that as a child, he was fed a cake filled with the letters of the alphabet, and so learned to love writing. He grew up to become a monk and a scribe a thousand years before the invention of printing, when books had to be copied by hand. There was one book, a beautiful volume of psalms from distant Rome, that Columcille especially loved, and even though its owner refused him permission, Columcille secretly copied it. The copy was discovered, and a dispute arose over who it belonged to: Columcille, who made it, or the owner of the original. So better was the argument that a battle was fought between the two men's powerful friends; although Columcille's side won, the victory felt hollow to him. To punish himself, he set out ina tiny boat, vowing to leave Ireland forever. A revered figure in Celtic history, Columcille (also known as Columbia) founded the famous monastery on the Scottish island of Iona and left a legacy of learning that illuminated a corner of the Dark Ages. History, drama, and a love of books and reading fill a story--told here in exquisite watercolors and deflty understated prose by noted author and artist Don Brown.

LC Classification NumberBR1720.C623B76 2002