Starlight Sailor - Hardcover

James Mayhew is an author and artist based in Hertfordshire. He starts his art workshops for children by telling them a story then asking them to illustrate the story, guiding them on the style of dress and architecture of the period. James has illustrated Shakespeare's Storybook (PB + 2 CDs: 9781905236855) and Stories from the Opera (PB + 2: 9781846860973) for Barefoot Books. Jackie Morris has illustrated several books for Barefoot, including The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems (HB: 9781905236558). She lives and works in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

At bedtime a young child reading the “star light, star bright” nursery rhyme with his mother drifts off to sleep and floats in a paper boat to a charming dreamland populated with welcoming playmates and a vast array of alluring fantasy creatures. The children frolic together and come upon a friendly, bright-red dragon who takes them on a short ride across the sky—until it’s time to say goodbye. The child is then escorted home by mermaids and sea creatures, while the dreamland children curl up asleep with the dragon. Although fantasy icons galore inhabit the dream (a pirate ship, unicorn, juggler, castles, hot-air balloons, and much more), the figures are small and either peek from the horizon or drift in and out of the action, so neither the ethereal watercolor illustrations nor the story told in a short, rhyming text feel overstuffed. Enchanted Lions by David T. Greenberg (2009) is another gentle nighttime romp. Preschool-Grade 2. --Randall Enos