There were stories about St. Andrew's, and everyone knew them -- stories that said the abandoned churchyard was haunted by some fearsome thing. While many brave and foolish men have risked the dark of night to discover what was happening there, what they found they'll never tell, for none of them was ever seen again. But stories aren't enough to stop Lucy Dove. And they're not enough to keep a superstitious laird from offering a sackful of gold to whoever sews him a pair of lucky trousers by the light of the full moon in that very churchyard. It should be easy for a clever seamstress like Lucy Dove to win that prize. Surely the stories she'd heard about the churchyard are just that -- stories. Or are they?
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on elements of a Celtic ghost story, this delectably well told tale has pitch-perfect prose matched by illustrations that seem imbued with mist and moonlight. When a superstitious, wealthy lord is told that a pair of trousers sewn under a full moon in St. Andrew's graveyard will bring him good luck, he issues a proclamation: "A sackful of gold to the one who sews me those trews!" The graveyard is known to be haunted by a "fearsome thing," but "as fortune would have it, and fortune always has her way," a seamstress named Lucy Dove hears of the offer and takes up the challenge. A flesh-hungry "bogle" appears, but Lucy continues to sew, hiding her fear as she craftily converses with it: "[People tell] stories about me?" asks the bogle. "Do they tell of... how I strike fear in the hearts of brave but foolish men?" "Something like that," Lucy answers cunningly, "They tell them to little children at bedtime, to help them sleep, you know." Children's librarian and debut author Del Negro is equally adept at building suspense and maintaining humor, and her text is laced with witty asides and atmospheric dialect. Gore's (The Pomegranate Seeds) self-framed acrylic paintings have an ethereal quality, their spookiness tempered to just the right degree by subtle colors, wispy brushstrokes and mottled areas. Like the text, the art is masterfully paced, and two wordless spreads?Lucy first seeing the ghoul, and then running from its jagged white claws?heighten the drama. Ages 8-11.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-Del Negro's original story based on a Celtic folktale features Lucy Dove, a plucky seamstress who takes up a laird's challenge to sew a pair of lucky trousers by the light of the full moon in St. Andrew's churchyard. As she stitches her neat and tidy way through the pinned and basted pants, a fearsome bogle makes its way slowly and threateningly out of a marble tomb. Lucy Dove defeats the creature through a combination of courage, wit, and feigned indifference, making it home by the skin of her teeth but winning herself a bag of gold for the completed garment. Del Negro doesn't waste a word in her narrative, skillfully delineating both Lucy and the bogle, maintaining suspense, and delivering a wholly satisfying conclusion. Children will experience delicious shivers whether the story is read aloud or independently. Storytellers will also find the tale appealing, but Gore's dreamlike acrylic paintings set its dramatic tone. The figures seem shrouded in mist, with carefully defined details: Lucy's needle, the bogle's teeth, the sly look in the woman's eyes and smile as she taunts it, the determination on her face when the monster pursues her. This practically perfect picture book has all the trappings of a tailor-made classic.
Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is what it sounds like, when doves cry,
By
This review is from: Lucy Dove (Hardcover)
There is a great mistaken belief amongst a large portion of the human race that if a book's protagonist is a child then that book, by extension, must be a work intended for wee ones. Too often, rather peculiar titles will be handed to little ones as kiddie fare (paging "Kira-Kira") when such notions are not only laughable but somewhat bizarre. I mean, if every book with a kid hero was meant to be read by kids then by extension shouldn't every book containing an elderly protagonist be read by the aged and infirm? Which brings us to the delightful picture book, "Lucy Dove". "Lucy Dove" actually flies in the face of my previous statement since I truly feel that every human being, the elderly included, would benefit from a perusal of this perfect meeting of folktale and ethereal illustration. This is one of those picture books you simply do not see every day.
There once was a foolish, superstitious, and incredibly wealthy gentleman (or "laird"). But this is not his story. You see, the laird was the kind of fellow who felt he needed a bit of luck to keep himself happy. And what better way is there to be lucky than to own a pair of lucky trousers? And what better trousers could they be than the kind sewn together under a full moon in the graveyard of old St. Andrew's church? So the laird sent a proclamation offering a whole heaping helping of gold to anyone who'd do the deed the next moonlit night. Which brings us to our heroine, Lucy Dove. Lucy was not exactly in the first fair bloom of her youth, and she was seriously considering retiring from the seamstress line of work. Problem was, she didn't exactly have a pension. So when she heard the laird's proposal she thought it was a mighty fine deal. The next full moon, Lucy's out in that churchyard ah-sewing up some trousers. Until a very nasty someone tries to stop her in her work. And it has quite long claws. For anyone who reads this tale and then proceeds to attempt to find its predecessors, please know that according to author Janice Del Negro, Lucy is an original character and merely based on traditional Celtic and British sources. Says her bookflap, " `Lucy Dove' is her version of a traditional Celtic tale she has been telling for years, one that evolved from her search for stories with active heroines to offset the passive female protagonists of many popular fairy tales". One might point out that even when you do find a gutsy heroine in a tale, she's usually a young lovely maiden and very rarely a witty fast-thinking crone like our dear Lucy here. Moreover, the villain of this tale (a smelly bogle with a tendency to repeat himself) is simultaneously scary and pitiable. This is in large part due to illustrator Leonid Gore's remarkable illustrations. Creating the finest distinctions between shadow and light with luminescent acrylics, Gore's tale is all soft and scary at the same time. When the bogle is told by Lucy that people speak of it often, the picture shows it resting a sharp chin on the back of its hand, like a child pining for a story. Little details as well as grand ones make this book especially wonderful to view. I know that there are roughly 78.4 billion Halloween picture books for children out there. But if you're thinking of doing something a little different in the autumnal season, definitely cast your eye over the fabulous, "Lucy Dove". A tale that celebrates age and wisdom in the face of self-obsessed evil.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Charming retelling of an old ghost story,
This review is from: Lucy Dove (Paperback)
I've read this story before, in different forms over the years, but I love Lucy Dove the most. She's plucky and brave! The illustrations are so incredible, and that was the original reason I picked up the book in the first place, but when I realized it was a retelling of an old favorite story, I bought it immediately.
Dark and scary, yes, but not too scary for kids. The seven year old I read it to was tickled over the dialogue between Lucy and the creature in the cemetery. It's just scary enough for kids to have fun with, and beautiful enough, visually, to please their parents.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lucy Dove,
By
This review is from: Lucy Dove (Paperback)
ISBN 0789480840 - I broke my own rule with this book and I regret it so much that I have to confess. I never, ever, read the reviews before I read the book if I intend to review it. Ever. There's a good reason for this. Over the years, I've stumbled across reviews by family and friends of authors and even by the authors themselves. The level of my disgust with that practice is high, it almost always affects me negatively and I hate for that to seep into my own review. So, finding a review or reviews by people who proudly inform me that they "know Janice"... it's a bothersome thing. Their opinion is rendered useless to me, even if they're geniuses, because you KNOW they're going to 5-star anything their friend wrote. Then I read the book, wondering why, looking for the reason, the author couldn't get their book reviewed the honest way. That happened to me with this book.
Lucy Dove would like nothing more than to retire "in a cottage of her own, on her own piece of shore". When the soothsayer of a rich and superstitious laird tells him one way he can have good fortune, he offers a sack of gold to anyone who will sew him a pair of trousers in the haunted graveyard of St Andrew's church on the night of the next full moon. Lucy sees this as an excellent opportunity to secure her own future and sets out on the night in question, fully prepared. Just as she begins to doubt the tales told in town, a smell arises and a creature appears. Keeping her wits, Lucy manages to finish her sewing and flee from the creature. The race is on the reach the laird's castle... The book is not marked, anywhere, to indicate the target age group, a mistake a lot of books make. Thin and oversized, the book looks to be appropriate for the 4-8 age group, but the text is more appropriate for the 9-11 group. The text is almost flawless, truthfully, which caught me by surprise. The tale unfurls at the perfect pace, building a little tension and not giving away much in advance, which will keep the reader on the edge of his/her seat. The story would make a great Halloween read, although I think I'll add it, alongside The Sprightly Tailor (which this book greatly resembles and which can be found in Celtic Fairy Tales) to the St Patrick's Day reading! The illustrations, by Leonid Gore, are... ugly. I don't mean "ugly" in a "scary, haunting" way, I just mean unattractive. In most books for older kids, this wouldn't matter because they're not the picture-book crowd. In the case, however, the illustrations almost literally take up every inch of every page, even where there's text (they only interfere with the text for one word, to my eye). I understand what Gore was trying to evoke, I just think it failed and that failure is why the book is getting 4 stars, rather than 5. Finally - if you care, and I do, lately - the book is printed and bound in the U.S., a small thing that I like to see. - AnnaLovesBooks
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