THE BOY AND THE CLOTH OF DREAMS

A lyrical, dreamlike tale with more truth than many a realistic story. When the boy was born, his grandmother made him a cloth of dreams to ``keep the dark night things away...until he is big enough to forge his own courage.'' Now, going to visit his grandmother, he accidentally tears the precious cloth. His mother is sure that his grandmother will mend it, but the boy forgets to ask her. That night, nightmares—his first ever—send him scurrying across the dark hall to find her; and mend it she does, after he fetches ``threads from the sun and threads from the moon,'' which (with some trepidation) he reaches from the rooftop as the moon sets and, in dramatic simultaneity, the sun rises. And so he forges his own courage. The potent imagery is strengthened by the simplicity of the graceful telling, while Mayhew deepens the meaning with glowing night scenes in stained- glass colors and gentle, Ardizzone-like characterizations. (Picture book. 4-8)