THE MIDNIGHT MAN

by Berlie Doherty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1998

Lilting lines of hushed, poetic images carry a boy and his dog on a journey through the darkness in this personification of night. A cross between the sandman and lack Frost, the midnight man rides past when children are sleeping, bearing a sack of stars. Sleepy-eyed Harry and his pet, Mister Dog, are drawn into a night drama that is more atmosphere than adventure, as they ""tiptoe downstairs, past all the snoring doors, and they're out and up the street before the latch clicks shut."" Harry enters, with Mister Dog at his heels, into the dreamy landscape of nighttime, to a place at the end of town ""where the moors stretch into darkness as if there's no world left."" The boy and dog are not in danger, never spirited away by the mysterious man and his galloping horse. Instead they fall asleep, and the moon ushers them back ""up the tiptoe stairs"" and ""folds them down into their tousled beds."" Colored-pencil blue and brown create midnight mist and mystery; full-frame illustrations are occasionally broken by panes of pictures in storyboard-style sequence that simulates a bridge or a window. The book toys with notions of sleep and dreams, and finds the place at the edge of consciousness, where imagination and reality cross paths.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998

Categories: CHILDREN'S