ELISABETH AND THE WATER-TROLL

Grieving for her dead mother, little Elisabeth lets her tears fall into a well where they stir the resident man-like monster to inarticulate sympathy; he steals her away to the well's depths to comfort her. Her father, trying to elicit help, inadvertently stirs up a posse of angry, uncontrollable villagers who manage to end the troll's life while retrieving the child, who nonetheless has responded to his care and treasures his memory. This purposeful allegory about overcoming grief is over- earnest and self-consciously artful; on the other hand, the artistry is fairly effective: the style is carefully crafted and some of the poetic effects quite touching. Healy's vividly colored paintings are in a dream-like, expressionistic style: like the text, often powerful but occasionally clumsy. A mixed but interesting effort.~(Fiction. 8-12)