Description
Very Good+ illustrated dust jacket. A mylar dust jacket has been added. The Very Good+ binding is green paper over boards, tan cloth backed. Fading to front and back boards, title embossed on the cover, gilt lettering on the spine. Black & white illustrations throughout by Richard Jesse Watson. Pages are clean and the binding is tight.
About the book (from the dust jacket)
At daybreak, Bronwen puts on her sunflower hat and begins to work in the garden, using her special claw-shaped trowel. But as the sun sets, the grass and the flowers grow dark, and the light in
the river disappears. The All-Dark rises from the hedges and invades Bronwen’s world. The worst thing about the All-Dark is the Shapes that come from it-and the last is as bad as the first. Bronwen is not the only one frightened of the Shapes that shift and change, but she is the only one who can conquer the Shape-Shifter and beat back the All-Dark. A kingdom of gentle flying squirrels needs her help, for the All-Dark leaves them prey to weasels, night hawks, and wildcats.
Taking up her magic straw, Bronwen journeys to the squirrels’ kingdom, where she courageously battles the Shape-Shifter as it assumes the form of the elements-air, fire, water, and the very earth itself.
About the illustrator (from the dust jacket)
Richard Jesse Watson’s dramatic mysterious illustrations capture not only Bronwen and her straw, but also the alternately gentle and fierce moods of James Dickey’s richly imaginative epic poem. Story and pictures combine to create an unforgettable book that will be a treasured addition to any bookshelf.
About the author (From the dust jacket)
JAMES DICKEY is a poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher. Among his literary honors are the prestigious Levinson Prize, awarded to him in 1981 for five poems from his book Puella; the 1965 National Book Award for Poetry and the 1965 Melville Cane Award, both for Buckdancer’s Choice; and the 1971 French Prix Medicis for his first novel Deliverance. James Dickey also wrote the screenplay for the highly acclaimed film version of Deliverance.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and a judge for the annual Ritz Paris Hemingway Prize, James Dickey is currently the first Carolina Professor and Poet-in-Residence at the University of South Carolina.
“I like to mythologize my children and grandchildren,” he writes of Bronwen, the Traw, and the Shape-Shifter. “This book grew out of stories I told my little girl, Bronwen, when she was three and four.” A native of Georgia, James Dickey received both his bachelor’s degree and his master’s degree from Vanderbilt University, graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. The father of three, he now lives in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife, Deborah, and their daughter, Bronwen.
