British author and illustrator Jane Ray (The Little Mermaid and Other Fishy Tales) turns her attention to the beasts of the earth in this exciting addition to her Story Collector series, sure to enchant middle graders and folklore enthusiasts alike.
Eleven animal poems and tales, whose origins range from the American South to Asia to the Arctic, are the works of other writers or retold by Ray in her own accessible, elegant style, perfect for reading aloud. The type is generously sized, and the design is agreeably roomy. The wonderful stories are enhanced by Ray's signature, etched Scraperboard illustrations, echoing folk art styles. A bejeweled scarlet elephant plucks a plump fig under a starry sky in the Indian tale "The Heavenly Elephant," and a graceful young couple strides through petal-studded air in the Slavic "The Singing Ringing Tree." A slavering minotaur's baleful red eye glows from the darkness in "Theseus and the Minotaur." An adorable, smoke-snorting Custard the Dragon accompanies the Ogden Nash poem in which he stars, and the collection's titular heroes snarl at each other across facing pages, atop a watermark showing their battle.
Ray chose her entries to illuminate humanity's "paradoxical and confused relationship with animals" and the many qualities we project onto them, from magical powers to human emotion. Classrooms and libraries will welcome this admirable assemblage with open arms, but it would also make a handsome gift for the starry-eyed child, animal lover or tale collector. Ray continues to conjure nothing short of pure magic. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services librarian, Latah County Library District (Idaho)