Secret Dawn

Edith Newlin Chase

ISBN 10: 1552090280 / ISBN 13: 9781552090282

Published by Firefly Books Ltd, 1996

About this Item

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body using a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth. However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she's found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warmhearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent coparent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen's eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don't think about love that way. Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she's about to confess, Homily reveals why she's in the area: she's hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Shesheshen didn't curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily's twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.

Seller Inventory # CIN1552090280G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Secret Dawn
• Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1552090280
• ISBN 13: 9781552090282
• Binding: Hardback
• Illustrator: Lefebvre, Yolaine
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

As dawn breaks, a little girl awakens and sneaks out to her secret treetop hideaway, where the animals come out to play and she records her thoughts and poems, in a tranquil verse tale accompanied by dreamy watercolor illustrations.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A young girl wakes early, dresses, and goes outside to savor daybreak from her special place in a giant willow tree. There she keeps her treasures, including writing materials, and relishes her time to herself. Unfortunately, Chase's poem burdens this simple episode with cloying sentiment, relying on hackneyed phrases such as "In the dim delight of dawn" and "Nobody knows how the little leaves quake." Flat, unimaginative metaphors and verses like: "Up in the willow is wispy and whispery,/Silent and silvery, misty with mystery!" further weaken this effort. Lefebvre's watercolor illustrations evoke the changing hues of dawn and add a gentle, dreamlike quality to the book. Attractive packaging, however, cannot salvage the muddled, sentimental poem.
Marilyn Taniguchi, Santa Monica Public Library, CA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.