Shadow Story - Hardcover

Willard, Nancy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152016384 ISBN 13: 9780152016388

Publisher: Harcourt Brace, 1999

Synopsis

Holly Go Lolly has a strange relationship with shadows, which comes in handy when the Ooboo comes to eat her, and she is able to use her shadow abilities to trick him.

About this title

About the Authors

Nancy Willard (born June 26, 1936) is a novelist, a poet, and a children's writer and occasional illustrator. Her 1981 collection of poems, A Visit to William Blake's Inn, won the Newbery Medal as that year's most distinguished contribution to American children's literature.

Willard was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she later received the B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and won five Hopwood Awards for creative writing. She also studied at Stanford University, where she received her M.A.

David Diaz has illustrated numerous award-winning books for children, including Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, for which he was awarded the Caldecott Medal; The Wanderer by Sharon Creech, which received a Newbery Honor; and Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, a Pura Belpré Honor Award winner. An illustrator and graphic designer for more than twenty-five years, he is also a painter and an accomplished ceramic artist. Mr. Diaz lives in Carlsbad, California.

Reviews

Willard (The Tortilla Cat) brings her considerable storytelling powers to this enchanting tale of a girl with the wit and ingenuity to outfox a formidable opponent. Holly Go Lolly, thanks to a blessing from a fairy godmother, grows up unafraid of the dark and with a gift for making shadow figures with her hands. When the dreaded Ooboo gobbles up both her father and mother, she sets off for his mountain palace, armed with nothing but her imagination and her shadow artistry. The enterprising heroine handily conquers Ooboo and, in a tacked-on ending--the book's only misstep--converts his palace into a library. Willard's eloquent tale is alight with vivid images, including the shadowy fairy godmother "sidling along the wall" and "snip-snapping her shears--clip clap!" In illustrations reminiscent of his work in The Little Scarecrow Boy, Diaz unifies the images with shades of orange and green (at times, Holly, with her billowy orange skirt and green bodice, resembles a pumpkin). Drawing from the style he used so effectively in The Disappearing Alphabet, the artist creates spot art that resembles paper cut-outs and that emulates Holly's silhouetted figures. The world he creates is wholly original, as is his Ooboo--both fierce and comical, with an extra set of eyes at shoulder level and a single leaf sprouting from his bald pate. Both verbally and visually compelling, this splendid fantasy is one to be savored. Ages 5-10. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Willard (The Tale I Told Sasha, p. 539, etc.) and Diaz (Margaret Wise Brown's The Little Scarecrow Boy, 1998, etc.), the story of how orphaned Holly Go Lolly, with her nimble fingers and quick thinking, gets the best of the wicked Ooboo. Gifted with the ability to create animals, scenery, and people by manipulating her hands to make magical shadows, she tricks the evil ogre by appealing to his voracious appetite. Diaz based the drawings for the Ooboo on a character from a 19th-century French play. Reminiscent of Sumatran shadow puppets, his whimsically surrealistic illustrations are the highlight for a story that, for all the special effects, is a conventional tale of brain beating brawn. (Picture book. 5-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Grade 1-3-Holly Go Lolly, born on the Night When Shadows Linger, learns early to play with shadows and make them take any shape, and lucky she can do that, because there's no money for toys. Then the always-hungry Ooboo eats her father and then her mother, and Holly will be next unless she can do something about it. On her fairy godmother's advice, she goes to the Ooboo's palace and announces herself as the Shadowy One, the magician whom a thousand shadows serve, and the real test of her shadow-making skills begins with the making of the trick that will save her own life. This original fairy tale, a bit reminiscent of Carl Sandburg's "Rootabaga Stories" in the naming of its characters and its combination of the down-to-earth and practical with the fantastic and magical, has both a courageous and clever young heroine and a plot that lightens its frightening elements with comedic ones. The illustrations invite readers into the fantasy. The warm, glowing colors, the intentionally comic depiction of the Ooboo, and the snub-nosed marionettelike figure of Holly Go Lolly anchor the story in a world in which the rounded shapes and curving lines strongly evoke the realm of fairy tales. It is a world in which anything can happen, and all ends well. A remarkable melding of witty text and amazing illustrations.
Marian Drabkin, Richmond Public Library, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Brace
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152016384
• ISBN 13: 9780152016388
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Diaz David
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40