Good-night Blessing Book - Hardcover

Ages 5^-8. As she did in her earlier picture book, Alphabet of Angels (1994), Willard features her own color photographs of angels and folk art, in this case to illustrate the words of a lovely good-night prayer. There is much to ponder in these unusual still-life tableaux of angel dolls from many cultures and times preparing breakfast, playing accordions, posing among the flora, and perching atop cabbages. The photos lend the text an ethereal and whimsical quality, which captures the ultimate strangeness of reality, a strangeness that children instinctively know. Most appealing is the angel who holds a photograph, apparently of a lost loved one; the text reads: "those we love / who do not stay / but journey out, / so fast, so far / they break bread with the evening star." This book may appeal primarily to adults not deterred by the picture-book format; nonetheless, it is a pleasurably strange and quietly beautiful book for children to hear and examine. It may also prove useful as collateral material in art classes for older children Shelley Townsend-Hudson

Much in the same vein as her recent An Alphabet of Angels, Willard's latest combines verse with photographs of carefully composed tableaux. As before, angels take center stage, this time to honor the sacred in the everyday. The verse flows in strong currents ("Bless new-washed clothes, the Milky Way,/ and those we love who do not stay/ but journey out, so fast, so far/ they break bread with the evening star"). Accompanying images are sometimes arresting and often humorous (for the "new-washed clothes," an angel irons a pair of freshly laundered wings; for the "Milky Way," another hovers before the fridge, contemplating the dairy goods). Although there is much here for children to appreciate, especially the angel dolls, images and figurines shown cleverly tucked in cabbages, ferrying teacups, trumpeting the dawn, and so on, the level of visual and linguistic sophistication makes the book better suited to adult angel aficionados. All ages.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.