In an original story with Celtic roots, a superstitious laird believes that “a pair of trousers sewn by the light of the full moon in the graveyard of old St. Andrew’s church” will bring him luck. He offers a sackful of gold to the one who sews the trousers. Despite the rumors that St. Andrew’s is haunted by a fearsome beast, and despite the fact that those who have gone after the beast have never returned, Lucy Dove—a seamstress with her eyes on a comfortable retirement, and one cool customer—answers the laird’s challenge. She heads for the churchyard during “the twilight space between sunset and moonrise,” and sits down to sew. When the monster—all pointed teeth, blazing eyes, and ropey neck—rises from the grave beside her, Lucy keeps right on sewing, commenting that he must be “the wee bogle” featured in children’s bedtime stories. Lucy’s cheek buys her just enough time to finish the trousers and hightail it to the laird to collect her reward, with the furious bogle in hot pursuit. Told in lilting, colorful language, Del Negro presents a woman with mettle enough for beasts mythical and real, while Gore’s sweeping acrylic illustrations, overlaid with a hatching of fine white lines, provide a properly spooky setting of twisting branches, cracked gravestones, and looming ravens. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-7894-2514-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1998
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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As atmospheric as its companion, Twilight Comes Twice, this tone poem pairs poetically intense writing with luminescent oils featuring widely spaced houses, open lawns, and clumps of autumnal trees, all lit by a huge full moon. Fletcher tracks that moon’s nocturnal path in language rich in metaphor: “With silent slippers / it climbs the night stairs,” “staining earth and sky with a ghostly glow,” lighting up a child’s bedroom, the wings of a small plane, moonflowers, and, ranging further afield, harbor waves and the shells of turtle hatchlings on a beach. Using creamy brushwork and subtly muted colors, Kiesler depicts each landscape, each night creature from Luna moths to a sleepless child and her cat, as well as the great moon sweeping across star-flecked skies, from varied but never vertiginous angles. Closing with moonset, as dawn illuminates the world with a different kind of light, this makes peaceful reading either in season, or on any moonlit night. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-16451-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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