Suite for Human Nature
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From the legendary songwriter Diane Lampert, based on a musical piece she wrote with Pulitzer Prize and nine-time Grammy–winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, comes an exquisitely illustrated folktale about how we humans got some of our…naughtier traits, and what overcomes them all.
Mother Nature is a very busy woman. Her job is to tend to the Earth and all the creatures that dwell there—she must wake up the bulbs and warm the land in spring, she must freeze the ponds and create snow in winter. But more than anything, Mother Nature wanted children of her own. So with twigs and things she made five: Fear, Envy, Hate, Greed, and Fickle. She asks the most helpless of creatures—the poor, wingless humans—to watch over them as she works. But then her children’s wild personalities begin to seep into human nature in a way that Mother Nature never intended.
A lilting, lyrical ode to all of our human shortcomings and the one trait—love—that can overcome them all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lampert wrote the libretto for Wynton Marsalis's 2004 Suite for Human Nature, an allegory about how love tames aggressive emotions. In this adaptation, Puybaret's (Alice in Wonderland) gauzy and graceful paintings on linen create an ethereal ambience; a fairylike Mother Nature with umber skin and a flowing aqua gown with petal accents sustains the weather, flora, and fauna. Mother Nature tends the Earth and cares especially for humans, but she also yearns for children of her own. One by one, she crafts little troublemakers named Fear, Hate, Envy, Greed, and Fickle. The gender dynamics are questionable, since all are boys except flirty Fickle. While Mother Nature governs the seasons, "waking up bulbs" in spring and "ripen the fields" in summer, she leaves humans in charge of her children and returns to an ever-more-volatile populace. At last, after consulting with the four winds, the anxious Mother Nature creates girl twins who model patient Love. Reminiscent of the story of Pandora's box and other creation tales, this gently told allegory avoids its violent implications and favors optimistic resolutions. All ages.
