In Katie May Green's imaginative and accomplished debut picture book, a black cat leads readers into an ancient house in which the children in the portraits come alive.
"In a big old house, up creaky stairs,/ in a silent little nursery full of dolls/ and teddy bears, you'll find the children of Shiverhawk Hall./ They're children in pictures on the wall--/ seen and not heard," begins the gently rhyming narrative. The opening double-page spread shows a quintet of portraits of angelic-looking children in Victorian attire, then close up in the next spread ("Don't they look so sweet and good,/ so well behaved,/ as children should?"). Yet the children, frozen in time in these portraits, are anything but "sweet and good." They break out of their frames and raid the kitchen, spilling whipped cream, truffles and jam on their formal attire. Green's palette of raspberry, blueberry, plum and honey tones makes the illustrations look good enough to eat. On their sugar-induced high, the children next raid the adult portraits, drawing mustaches and eyeglasses on the men's and women's faces; only the identical DeVille child twins sit serenely on a bench with perfect white bows in their hair. At sunrise, all goes back to the way it was... almost.
Children will return to this tale over and over, searching for all eight children during their nighttime adventure, watching the progress of three white mice in nearly every illustration, and seeing what's altered at sunrise in the pictures that line Shiverhawk Hall. Green is an author-artist to watch. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness