In or Out?

Margy Burns Knight (author)

Anne Sibley O'Brien (illustrator)

Talking Walls

Tilbury, 1992

Margy Burns Knight's Talking Walls begins with a poetic musing by Robert Frost: "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out...." Following that thought, Knight takes us on a journey to fourteen walls from around the world and different times in human history. The earliest are found in the caves of Lascaux, adorned with images of horses, bison, and antelope dating to more than 17,000 years ago. These images spur us to wonder about early human communities and ways of life. Prison walls held Nelson Mandela captive until February 1990, and in this case the walls ask us to confront difficult, but important questions of freedom and justice. The book ends decidedly upbeat, with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Asia has somewhat limited representation with just two examples:  the Great Wall of China and the relief sculpture at Mammallapuram. (A sequel includes another three. Review coming soon.)

  By design, Talking Walls cannot delve deeply into any one particular wall and its historical context. Instead, the underlying theme yokes together diverse expressions of human cultures with our common humanity. It invites further exploration and discussion, and those with an interest may inquire with Tilbury for teachers' guides.