The Knot in the Tracks - Hardcover

Piumini, Roberto

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688111661 ISBN 13: 9780688111663

Publisher: Tambourine, 1994

Synopsis

In faraway Siberia, along the tracks for the Trans-Siberian Railroad, a railroad worker is plagued by a bullying demon who insists on tying the tracks in knots.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1-4-Petrushka is a man who lives all alone in a desolate part of Siberia. His job is to make certain the tracks for the Trans-Siberian railroad remain in good shape for the train that passes by once a week. His placid life is suddenly turned inside-out by an odd-looking demon who ties the tracks into a knot. Rashka will only untie them if Petrushka makes him tea from far-away orange and mint leaves. Not long after the man accomplishes this difficult task, Rashka sets him another. Ultimately, the demon's greed leads to his demise-he is hit by the eastbound train and "smashed into a thousand pieces." The story borders on the bizarre, and Holmes's choppy translation and Fedorov's dark illustrations do little to make it more accessible. The full-page paintings appear to be done in a combination of watercolor and thin acrylic washes. The artist's style is semi-naive, especially in the doll-like depiction of the characters. The paintings are full of a variety of textures created by paint, paper, and repeated patterns. As a result, the work is visually interesting, but the relationship between text and illustrations never jells.
Denise Anton Wright, Illinois State University, Normal
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Petrushka, a diligent worker on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, leads a satisfactory, if solitary, existence dedicated to the maintenance of his beloved tracks, so that the weekly train can safely pass. When the blue, belly-scratching demon Rashka--perhaps the unkempt old uncle of Disney's genie--makes it his mission to mangle the rails, Petrushka is doomed to carry out the ogre's every demand. Fedorov, a Russian illustrator making his American debut, conjures up ethereal, desolate landscapes and peppers them with folksy accents: ducks glide into the twilight, lizards slither over the tracks, crows rest on the carcass of a mountain goat. Piumini ( The Saint and the Circus ) similarly builds atmosphere with evocative details; for example, Rashka first demands "a good hot tea of orange and mint leaves" (which "only grow beyond the mountains in the south") and then wants "a hundred red pebbles from the mountains in the north." The translation occasionally lacks grace, but the mood established by Fedorov and Piumini is solid--a careful mix of the eerie and the exotic secured in a classic folktale format. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tambourine
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0688111661
• ISBN 13: 9780688111663
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Fedorov Mikhail