Little Daylight

Decked out in gowns of flowing brilliance, a host of good fairies offers gifts to a royal couple's first born, fortuitously named Little Daylight. But an uninvited fairy arrives and casts a spell: the child will sleep through the day and wake at night, waxing and waning with the moon. Duntze's luminous paintings show how the years change Daylight from a playful toddler to a winsome lady whose nocturnal romps attract the notice of a handsome passerby deep within the forest. The illustrations imbue this classic with a true sense of magic, with such inventive details as the bad fairy's conjuring: she uses a configuration of old bones, a fox's tail and raven feathers. All ages. (October)