The team behind The King with Horse's Ears
presents a retelling of a traditional Scottish tale with appropriate gallows humor. Jack lives in a seaside cottage with his mother. One morning, he awakes to find his mother bedridden: " 'I'm so poorly, dear boy,' she wheezed. 'I think Old Man Death will be coming for me soon!' " Jack, distraught, heads to the beach, where he meets the Grim Reaper himself, whom Hess portrays as a bowlegged, bony specter with a tattered black robe and scythe. When the fellow asks for directions to Jack's cottage, the boy furiously stuffs the specter into a hazelnut and tosses it into the sea. However, Jack's actions have consequences: his mother is magically healed, but the boy soon finds that they cannot break chicken eggs or kill their rooster ("[His mother] laid the cockerel on the block and chopped off its head. The head flew off... and then flew back on its shoulders again!"), nor can the butcher kill the cows. Jack confesses his actions, and his mother sends him to release Death from the nut. Old Man Death forgives Jack and agrees to spare his mother "for awhile." Though Maddern's subject is dark, Hess's airy watercolors leaven the proceedings. His seaside scenery reinforces the sense of a natural cycle of life. The theme ("Without Death there can be no Life") is valuable, but the tale—particularly the potential loss of a parent—may disturb younger readers. Ages 5-up. (Feb.)
FYI:
This duo's
The King with Horse's Ears, a folktale about a monarch with a secret that, once revealed, makes the royal realize that his uniqueness is an asset, is available in paperback.
(Frances Lincoln, $7.95 32p ages 5-up ISBN 1-84507-309-6; Feb.)
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