TROLL WEATHER

The only trolls Selma knew were the pine-cone ones on the window sill, little creatures she could hold in her hands. But at the Widow Paulsson's, high above the Norwegian village, the lonely old woman frightened her with tales of thievish trolls who feared nothing in the whole world but the sun. Selma wondered...was it foolishness? The next summer, helping to tend the cows and goats on the mountainside, Selma learns from her older sister, Sigrid, that the trolls are very rich. ""They have goats and cows, too, and live in golden houses on the top of the mountains."" When she hears the echo of a goat's bleat, of a cow's low, she decides that these must be the trolls' goats and cows; when she sees the mountain peaks shining bright as gold, she decides that they are the houses of the trolls, and she forgets to be afraid. ""Here,"" she thinks, ""the trolls live always in a wonderful, shining world and both Sigrid and I have seen it. But even when we don't see it, it is always there, very high and bright and far away."" The message that magic is what you make it emerges appropriately from an ambience of loving concern and homely attention to detail. A plenitude of light but lively drawings and large type complement a simple, lingering tale for early reading or earlier listening.