Grade 1-3?An absurd tale about a girl who is too afraid of the night to go to sleep. When night comes, Darkfright closes and locks every door and window in her house. She carefully covers each keyhole with gum so that the soucouyants, who "...would shed their skin...and come through the keyhole like a ball of light to take you far away," can't get through. She stays up all night long, disturbing her neighbors by singing loudly, chanting, and clapping to make the night think that her house is full of friends. She sleeps all day and misses the market full of colorful vegetables. When a beautiful star crashes through her door one morning, she fixes its bent point with flowers and herbs. Then she throws it back into the night sky. The ending is too abrupt and simplistic to cure Darkfright's deep paranoia, or to give readers a satisfying conclusion. The watercolor illustrations of the Caribbean island setting are well done, but are not enough to pull together this story, which is neither entertaining nor reassuring.?Janet M. Bair, Trumbull Library, CT
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ages 5^-8. The rhythms and idioms of the Caribbean dialect warm this tale. "Darkfright" earned her nickname for her fear of the dark. Every day at sunset, she fills her house with candles, lamps, and lanterns. She seals up her windows, sings daytime songs, and throws parties for imaginary guests. Even the fireflies are enlisted to keep the ghosts away: "Glow darlings, shine-up the mango trees . . . . Shine in the eyes of the jumbies. Be sendin' them east of the seas." Then one dawn, a wounded star crashes through her door. Darkfright sympathizes with the celestial being and nurses it back to health. When her star returns to the heavens, she realizes for the first time that "the night, she's a heap of good things." Rhythm, rhyme, and humor make the text jump. Whimsical illustrations splash the pages with tropical colors. Readers with nighttime fears of their own will be soothed and amused. Leone McDermott
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