The Brontës

This picture book presents the childhood of the four Bront$eU siblings, told through a somewhat bland, but nevertheless interesting, reconstruction of Charlotte's journals. The illustrations attempt to capture the wild beauty of the moors above Howarth and the contrasting orderliness of life in the rectory, while in frame after frame a phantom figure looms, gazing from windows and mirrors and half-open doors. Had this representation of the rich fantasy life of the children been elaborated upon, a pleasant and informative book might have been transformed into a much more striking account of the imaginative rhapsodies shared by this wonderfully strange family.