Kerven plays to believers in this distillation of magical lore from cultures worldwide. Urging young readers to disregard the skepticism of grown-ups, she surveys various sorts of magic workers, magical creatures, charms, kinds of spells and magical realms. She also sketchily retells seven vaguely sourced tales of spells and transformations and offers helpful advice on such topics as making wishes or breaking spells laid on others: “Kiss the animal or thing that your friend has turned into.” Anderson goes for humor and mystery in his small, elaborately modeled illustrations, throwing a lurid yellow-greenish light over portraits of witches and wizards with pointy hats, stunned-looking victims, rainbows ending in pots of gold and a black cat posing in various settings. Eurocentric slant aside (in her cameo, the Native-American Spider Woman has blond hair and European features), this joins the likes of Monika Beisner’s Secret Spells and Curious Charms (1985) as prime browsing material for young dreamers. (bibliography) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-84507-481-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A polished, poignant retelling of a familiar legend and its worthy moral, that some things in life are worth more than their weight in gold. Greed drives King Midas when a mysterious stranger decides to grant his wish for a golden touch; too late the king realizes that everything he touches—roses, bed sheets, food, coffee, his beloved daughter—turns to cold yellow metal. By the time the stranger reappears, Midas is more than ready to return his gift. Rayyan’s illustrations create a rich, busy background for the events; harpies, sphinxes, and satyrs scurry around, while careful observers will spot Icarus plunging toward the earth at the same moment that Midas transforms his daughter, Marygold. Such wonderful details bind the art and the text with perfect alacrity, ensuring that this book will not be long on the shelves. (Picture book/folkore. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1423-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
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