Customer Reviews

Night of the Gargoyles

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Visions of frolicking gargoyles delighting in night, splish-splashing in watery fountains, and spooking unwanted humans tempt the senses of readers as Eve Bunting nimbly weaves her silvery text around these stony figures. Each page sets forth a new scene of the gargoyles' brief revelry before they are destined, once again, to return to "squat high on corners...empty eyes unblinking...". The text is intertwined from page to page with a lyrical yet unconscious rhythm, permeating each scene with a spookiness enhanced by the onminous repetition "till night comes". Wiesner's two-toned pastels soften the contrast of light to dark, enhancing the story's black and white ghostliness as the gargoyles come to life-lounging in trees, spewing water, and making faces at one another. His illustrations animate these "pock-marked" characters in a way that text alone cannot. Shadowy visages added to haunted expressions reveal an underlying tone whispering hints of the supernatural. Perfectly mysterious for reading out loud, this book will bewitch readers and listeners, school-age and beyond, with its timeless tale of the creepy-crawlies that come out at night.

I checked out this book from my local library for my four-year-old daughter who wanted a "scary" book, and the first thing that caught my eye was the excellent art work. It's absolutely stunning. Each page is a work of art unto itself, with blacks, whites, and grays that add immeasurably to this gothic little poem about mischievous gargoyle statues that come alive at night to frolic and play jokes on human beings. I can see how the book might be a little too scary for some children, but my daughter seems to find it "just right," as do I. Yes, the gargoyles look a little menacing and the overall tone of the book is a little dark, but it's also fun in the same way that Halloween is fun. Furthermore, I as an adult get a kick out of reading the book, the text of which is not necessary so simple that only young children will appreciate it; both kids and adults will enjoy it, in my opinion. I plan to buy a copy from Amazon for my own library, in fact.

Eve Bunting is not only one of the most prolific children's authors writing, she is also one of the best. Her poetic tale of NIGHT OF THE GARGOYLES is a darkly comical look at what happens at night when the sun goes down. Taking a cue from THE NUTCRACKER, THE VELVETEEN RABBIT, and other famous "come to life" stories, Bunting weaves a poetic homage to the stone guardians about when and how they come to life and what they do when no one is looking. David Wiesner's magnificent black, white, and grey illustrations are a perfect accompaniment to the text. The youngest and most easily scared of readers may find the story too scary. However, older children and even adults can be entertained by and enjoy the "foolish" (mischievous) escapades of these ancient stone warriors.

What an adorable book about freaky stone monsters of architecture! The concept here is that the creatures come to life at night to complain about their miserable lives, with some surprisingly clever humor. It's a little anti-human, surprisingly, but the gargoyles are a nice blend of scary, silly, and relatable and the illustrations are just lovely.

This book is about how in the day gargoyles are still, dead like stone figures, but at night they live. They fly around and cause trouble. Then by morning there as dead looking as ever, till night comes.

This book I think is a great kid's book. It's easy to understand, yet, there are hard words for them which will make them smarter, in the end I would give this book a five out of five stars.

Night of the Gargoyles is a highly interesting, spooky gargoyle book. This spooky book has all of the things that gargoyles would do at night. All in all this is a perfect book for children.
Eve Bunting uses ALOT of descriptive words in this book. It seems she uses at least three descriptive words on each page. Even if the pictures weren't there you could still very easily see what is happening in the story because of the use of the descriptive words.
A lot of the younger children would like this book because of all of the little gargoyles they have in there that kids normally like. It seems that in this book kids could really get into it and they would actually listen. Even though this book is intended for kids they would ask some questions because of some of the words that they use in the book.

David Wiesner, you magnificent b*stard! It takes an illustrator like Wiesner to keep a book like this from crossing over into nightmare territory. Extremely cool details on these gargoyles.

If you live or vacation somewhere with Gothic architecture, your kids might get a kick out of this book. It is well done, and just thrilling enough to give them that quiver of fear.

Have you ever wonderd what happens to all the gargoyles at night?Well, this book will tell you!Writtin by Eve Bunting this book is a great childrens book.
In this book the gargoyles all wait intell night comes around thats when they wake up.Some of them go to the fountin where other gargoyles are are spitting from there leage.Others just run around town or fly through the sky.
The pictures in this bool are by David Wiener and they are great! He draws all of the gargoyles extremly well!My feelings about the bokk are that its an awsome childrens book and I think everybody should read it!

Imagine this Prom scene: girl in sweet, demure, ripped gauzy dress walks in with Gothboy dressed to the nine's in Goth attire. Closer---the girl has a black teardrop tattoed beneath her eye.

There, I have just introduced Eve Bunting, writer of sweet and bittersweet children's books: "The Wall," a Vietnam veteran takes his son to experience the Wall; "Smoky Nights," ethnic neighbors come together in this burning of L.A. during the '70's; "Dreaming of America," the story of one immigrant family arriving at Ellis Island; "I Love You, Too," a fabulous story of a daddy rabbit's and son's mutual love. And there is
David Wiesner, artist extraordinaire with an edgy twist to his work: "Tuesday," frogs on lily pads flying everywhere; "Flotsam," a camera criss-crossing the oceans reflecting children across time and space; "June 29, 1999," science experiment gone really bizarre and involving aliens.

"Night of the Gargoyles" merges these two Caldecott winners to create a phantasmagorical children's book. Eve has been infected with Goth--go, girl (not that I'm Goth, but it is a great Gothic sort of book). As a children's librarian, I always advise my student/children to look at the cover and every page in a children's book. You can count on creators of children's books "not to color in the lines," meaning they may begin the story anywhere: cover, end pages, half-title page, title page, or even page one. So we look first at the cover of "Night of the Gargoyles." Yep, they began there. One gargoyle has "awakened" and stares at us, almost as if we caught him in the act. Blood-red end pages (just inside front and back covers)--we'll come back to those, hey! a definition page--good, we need to know what a gargoyle is, title page with a regular gargoyle, page one--a really scary close-up of three stony gargoyles at the close of day.

"till night comes"....three gargoyles stretch and yawn. "[G]argoyles creep on stubs of feet"... Wow, what evil looks, or is it my imagination? All these dark drawings are eerie, fantastic, and downright scary.

In fact, I read this to my first graders and totally creeped them out. I showed them the book beforehand, told them it was really really scary and I could read another book. NOOOOO, read that one!! OK, if you get scared, go to the other room. My library is divided into two rooms. We have story time in one room and class in the other. As I read to these quaking children, hugging each other, the girls would jump up, scream, and run into the other room. Even some of the boys joined them. Then they would run back, sit down, scream, and do it again. Fun, fun, fun! It was delicious, scary fun. Of course, they all wanted to check out this book.

The reaction of these children is surely a great indicator of just how wonderful this book is. Of course, you know your own child. The illustrations are graphically vivid in portraying these creatures in stony action. They annoy the cherubs in the fountain who have to spit water forever. They sit together like old men huddling in front of an old-time country store and grump over the hazards of their job: hot sun all day, leaves clogging their throats, pigeons doing what pigeons are wont to do. Then they scuttle about to terrorize the night watchman. Until..."It's almost morning now/and so the gargoyles fly,/ up walls/ as spiders do." And they become guardians of the day once again, "till night comes."

Blood red. The end pages, remember? This is just my theory, but I think David, even though he totally loved drawing in blacks, whites, grays, silvers, he missed his vivid greens and oranges, and yellows, so he asked the publisher, Could I have red, please, for the end pages? There they are!

Bought this book for my 5 year old son who is interested in gargoyles. The book has beautiful black and white illustrations. The story uses poetic descriptions too difficult for younger children. You won't get through the book without stopping at least 5 times to answer questions. For ages 4-8? I don't think so!