Daybreak, Nightfall [Hardcover]

Jorge Elias Lujan (Author), Manuel Monroy (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Day and night, life and death are often seen as opposites. But they can also be understood as a continuum, one containing the other. Both ideas are expressed in these evocative poems by Jorge Elias Lujan. "An Apple in the Apple Orchard" describes a young boy and girl in the early morning playing hide-and-seek among the trees. "Pale as a Bone" places the same children on a carousel ride where a "Lady-as-Pale-as-a-Bone" is trying to choose whom to take with her. Illustrator Manuel Monroy artfully portrays both stories in a magic garden.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-Two short free-verse poems by an award-winning Argentine writer, illustrated by an up-and-coming Mexican artist. "An Apple in the Orchard" takes place in the morning and "Pale-As-Bone" is set late in the day. In the first, a boy covets an apple in a tree and makes friends with a little girl. In the second, a hollow-eyed Lady-as-Pale-as-a-Bone wonders, "Which of these shall I carry off first?" as she holds a merry-go-round in her hand, with four horses and the two children on it. Both poems are full of images, some of which are rather surreal and a little scary: the little girl wipes her mouth and it disappears; the lady has blue hair with black crows entangled in it and hollow skeletonlike eye sockets. The illustrator has depicted the images that the poems conjure up very well, in childlike pictures that add to the mysterious atmosphere. This book offers a lot for a class to discuss but will probably hold limited appeal for children picking it up on their own.
Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Groundwood Books (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0888994869
• ISBN-13: 978-0888994868
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,428,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)