JANET REACHFAR AND THE KELPIE

by Jane Duncan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1976

Brave Janet Reachfar (1975) is almost spooked here--as the vague and creepy creatures lurking in Hedderwick's landscapes aptly suggest--by grown-up George and Tom's shivery descriptions of Black Rory who lives in a nearby cave, the Whigma-leerie in the Bog, and the Kelpie in the Reachfar well. But skepticism about the well story leads Janet to investigate against her mother's orders, and the face that stares back at her causes a nightmare later--followed by confession, and then a trek by the whole household up to the well where Janet recognizes those ghastly Kelpie horns as her own reflected pigtails. But, as Mother says gently, ""Janet really did see something ugly in the well. What you saw was the ugly face of a girl who had done something that all her family had asked her not to do."" A restoring moral you'd be hard put to find in an American picture book, but it fits snugly into Duncan's rural Highland ambiance.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1976

ISBN: 1841582107

Page Count: -

Publisher: Seabury

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1976

Categories: CHILDREN'S