The Spirited Review

Weslandia by Paul Fleischman, ill. by Kevin Hawkes

Weslandia is a sneaky story. On the surface it is a book about a geeky boy who gains popularity by creating a culture of his own, but what makes this story unusual is that the plot is rooted in an idea about responsiveness to the land. Young Wesley is a friendless outcast with no taste for pizza or soda, or for football or shaved heads, much to the dismay of his more normal parents. After he reads about seeds and crops, Wesley embarks on a project to grow his own staple crop and found a new civilization. The west wind delivers seeds in the night; five days later strange plants emerge. Over the course of the summer Wesley's plants grow to dominate his backyard landscape; his foodstuffs, clothing, insect repellent, time keeping and activities all become driven by the "swist" plants which define the shape and culture of his new Weslandia.

Wesley may remind some readers of the popular Harry Potter for his opinionated perseverance and unswerving attention to his own intents. This is a young boy who takes control of his destiny, restructuring the face of his community along the way. But unlike Potter, Wesley's impetus is about land and space; he is thrilled "to open his land to chance, to invite the new and unknown." He is willing to live responsively to the land, to work locally, to meet his needs from products of his own small landscape. Rather than fighting evil, struggling to right injustices, etc., Wesley completes a revolutionary act simply by allowing the earth to define his reality.

Weslandia is perhaps a "boy" story -- the young geek, working alone, forms a civilization, controls the market (he sells the products of the plants), and rewrites the lives of his peers -- but it is a boy story about rebuilding a world from the earth-side up, rather than from the concrete (absolute) on down, and I think that the combination of behaviors will be appealing to young children of both genders. Older children and teens may enjoy discussing some of the implications and assumptions of Weslandia, including what it means to listen to the earth, whether it can be fashionable to be aligned with natural patterns, or what it would be like to have a single plant or animal define the majority of a cultural identity.

Kevin Hawkes' illustrations add to the bold feeling of the book; the pictures are bright, colorful, and comical. The vibrantly red swist are painted as dominant strokes in a landscape which becomes filled with birds and bugs as the plants grow, and while the color scheme and comical art also contribute to the boyishness of the overall story, this may well attract the eyes of children who would tend to pass over a book about plants in favor of one about dinosaurs.

Note: Weslandia was originally published in Cricket magazine in October 1996, with illustrations by Jean Gralley. For a study in the impact of illustrations on a story, check out the magazine version. Gralley's Wesley is contemplative rather than nerdy, with a sweeter face that seems open to experience; even his robes are looser and more forgiving. Hawkes' illustrations make a mockery of Wesley's family and classmates; his mother has a beehive hairdo, absurd heels and painted nails, his father looks like an arrogant bore. Gralley's swist are trees, while Hawkes' are enormous tropical flowers.

There are also some differences in text: in the book version, "Wesley alone dreamed of more exciting forms of shelter [than development housing]," but in Cricket, "he alone winced and wondered if other forms of shelter might exist." In the magazine version, Wesley develops solo games using parts of the swist; in the book, he creates games that include his classmates, and "tried to be patient with the other players' blunders." And in the magazine version, Wesley comes to depend on English less and less, as his language becomes defined by the swist. The Wesley of Cricket seems to be a gentler, more thoughtful boy than the somewhat arrogant, independent Wesley of the book version.

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