WIND CHILD

PLB 0-06-024904-8 An exquisite story from Murphy (The Song of the Christmas Mouse, 1991, etc.) that has the air of myth about it, and which is intricately plotted visually by the Dillons. Resshie is the child of a mortal woman and the east wind, but she has been raised by an old woman and does not know her parentage. She learns to weave, and her cloth has the beauty of the wind in it. But there is no one “to share with her the world’s secrets,” so she tries to weave a husband, without success. She captures a wild hunter, but he pines for his freedom and she grants it. When a prince appears at her door, and all the wind stops before him, Resshie makes him a bargain he cannot refuse. In most spreads, boxed text appears on the left with a small pendant illustration, while a large framed image appears on the right. In the inner margins are mirror images of Lee Dillon’s extraordinary sculpted faces with windblown hair and veils. The rhythms of the text find precise resonance in the pictures, and if the wind indeed has colors, they are the hues of these scenes, from gossamer greens to shadowy heliotropes, silvery blues, and gilt-edged platinum. A picture book to be cherished. (Picture book. 4-9)