The Night Shimmy - Hardcover

Strauss, Gwen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1550542028 ISBN 13: 9781550542028

Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

Eric doesn't like to talk. His secret friend, the Night Shimmy, says everything for him. Then he meets Marcia, who doesn't mind that he is quiet. As the two become friends, the Night Shimmy disappears. Angry and scared, Eric refuses to play with Marcia. But soon she needs his help and Eric discovers that he doesn't need his imaginary friend after all.

About this title

About the Author:

Gwen Strauss is the author of several books for young readers, including Ruth and the Green Book and Trail of Stones with illustrations by Anthony Browne. Strauss' poems, short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications including The New Republic, London Sunday Times, New England Review, Kenyon Review, Tampa Review and Antioch Review. She is the assistant director at the Brown Foundation Fellowship Program at the Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France, an artist residency program run by the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. She lives in Southern France with her three children.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The gifted author of Trail of Stones (1990), a series of searching psychological portraits in verse of familiar folkloric characters, portrays a painfully shy boy. Eric's only friend is the ``Night Shimmy,'' an imaginary alter ego who wears a black mask and witch's hat, also seen at times on Eric himself. One day Eric plays with Marcia, who doesn't mind his silence. After they enjoy flying Marcia's parrot kite, Eric has a night of unusually peaceful dreams, but awakes to find that the Night Shimmy has abandoned him. At first angry with Marcia, he relents when her kite gets caught in a tree; after he frees it, they begin to talk. From the black title spread with four takes of a door opening to a sky where dawn and then day supplant the stars, Browne brings his usual allusive power to the illustrations. The boy's solitary withdrawal and hesitant response to Marcia's proffered friendship are masterfully conveyed by skillful manipulation of relative sizes and distances and of the intensity and range of color, by surreal changes in details, by the use of dramatic shadows, and even by cropping--as well as by the black ground that squeezes the first illustration into a 4-inch square, then waxes and wanes and ultimately disappears when Eric begins to share his imaginative thoughts with his new friend. A subtle and perceptive treatment of a familiar theme, with an unusually harmonious melding of text and art. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 1550542028
• ISBN 13: 9781550542028
• Binding: Hardcover