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THE GREEN MIST

Name: THE GREEN MIST
Author: Marcia Sewall
ISBN: 0-395-90013-1

adapted by Marcia Sewall & illustrated by Marcia Sewall ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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A beguiling retelling of a 19th-century Lincolnshire tale that fairly dances with an impatience to be read aloud. Mouth-filling words dot this story, the context making them easily understood while taking away none of their mystery. Bogles and other horrid things live in the cracks and cinders and sleep in the fields in the old times, and at darkling every night folk walk round their houses with lights in their hands to keep the mischancy beings away. In autumn, “they sang hush-a-bye songs in the fields, for the earth was tired” and they fear the winters when the bogles have nothing to do but make mischief. As the year turns, they wake the earth from its sleeping each spring, and welcome the green mist that brings new growth. In one family, a child pines, longing for the green mist to return with the sun. Through the long winter she grows so weak her mother must carry her to the doorsill, so she can crumble the bread and salt onto the earth to hail the spring. The green mist comes, scented with herbs and green as grass, and the child thrives, once again “running about like a sunbeam.” The green, gold, brown, and gray of the watercolors show fields and haycocks, knobby-kneed children and raw-boned elders, a counterpoint to the rich text. (Picture book. 4-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-395-90013-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

- BOOK REVIEW
JAMES TOWNE
by Marcia Sewall & illustrated by Marcia Sewall

- BOOK REVIEW
MADAKET MILLIE
by Frances Ward Weller & illustrated by Marcia Sewall

- BOOK REVIEW
DADDY DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A GIANT ANYMORE
by Jane Resh Thomas & illustrated by Marcia Sewall

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BRAVE MARGARET

AN IRISH ADVENTURE

by Robert D. San Souci ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1999

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Another woman-turned-warrior tale, this time set in Ireland. Brave adventurer Margaret longs to “learn what lay beyond the wide sea,” and seizes her first opportunity when the handsome son of a king, Simon, stumbles onto her farm. She mightily convinces him to take her aboard, and is soon felling sea serpents. This prefaces the real monster she must slay—giant who rendered her true love lifeless with the stroke of a club—but she is imprisoned by a sorceress hag who tells her that only the “champion” whose finger fits a silver ring can free the sword that will kill the giant. Margaret slips the ring on, exclaiming, “What fools we are for thinking it must be a man who slays that great, dirty giant!” With giant slain and true love returned from the dead, a wedding ensues. This story has it all: high seas, sorcery, sea serpents, the slaying of dragons, with a Maureen O’Hara—like spitfire at the heart of it all. San Souci conjures up large events and sweeps of time with a minimum of words. Comport casts Margaret as a long-necked, pale-skinned beauty with waves of red hair as fiery as her spirit. (Picture book/folklore. 5-9)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-689-81072-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

- BOOK REVIEW
HAUNTED HOUSES
by Robert D. San Souci & illustrated by Kelly Murphy & Antoine Revoy

- BOOK REVIEW
AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT
by Robert D. San Souci & illustrated by Daniel San Souci

- BOOK REVIEW
SISTER TRICKSTERS
adapted by Robert D. San Souci & illustrated by Daniel San Souci

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THE THREE SILLIES

‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1999

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A foolish hero, a featherbrained heroine, and a bevy of muddle-headed characters lead the cast in this wry retelling from Kellogg (The Three Little Pigs, 1997, etc.). When a buffoonish gentlemen courts a young maiden, he discovers that silliness is epidemic in her family. While getting some cider, the young maiden daydreams about her pending marriage, the birth of her son, his growth to manhood, and his death when a mallet “donks” him on the head. She begins crying, relates the sorry scenario to her parents, and sets them sobbing, too. The gentlemen sets out to find three people sillier than his future wife and in-laws, a task that is easier than he imagined, and he returns willingly to their fold. A close encounter with the mallet during the wedding festivities serves the gentleman a slice of crow as he ultimately appears the most foolish of all. Kellogg’s bright, cartoon-like illustrations coupled with the hilarious captions make for a raucous tale that pokes fun at the foibles of those who count themselves as serious. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)