Jane Dyer

Fancy animals dress up for a dinner party, but almost as soon as everyone is seated, the lights go out, and Mrs. Reynard's diamond lavaliere(!) goes missing. Fortunately, Piggins the butler doubles as a Sherlock Holmes type, and neatly solves the mystery.

Imagine the movie Clue as a picture book for children (without Tim Curry, regretfully).

A girl and a faerie boy discover each other on Hallow's Eve and become fast friends. He takes her to his faerie hall below and tries to convince her to stay; she then takes him to spend a day in the world of men, on a farm, and presses him to stay instead. Yet both miss their true homes, and at last come to an agreement that they will remain friends and visit each other faithfully, but live in the worlds that they each call home.

A simple picture book tale that is reminiscent of Town Mouse, show more Country Mouse - with a light touch of the supernatural - this is yet another story that Yolen weaves with her lyrical language. The poem is as beautiful as the story of two friends torn between different worlds. The accompanying illustrations are detailed and have an ethereal quality suited to the subject matter. The elven world is filled with wistful blues and silvers, while the man's world is soaked in warm earth colors.

When I was young, I used to dream of finding some secret passage to a faerie world, and this book played upon those old buried desires. Yet it has a comical counterpoint in the practical, when the girl makes the faerie spend a day in our world, milking cows and cleaning sheds. The story is a balance between play and work, night and day, magic and reality ... a contrast of opposites that come together as friends in the end. show less

Piggins the pig is the butler for the Reynards, a very rich couple who are foxes.

Hosting a party, The Reynards greet guests as they arrive, each couple decked out in their finest.

The couples are depicted in humorous fashion.

Before the event, the Mrs. cannot find her lovely expensive necklace. Intimating that perhaps Piggins stole it, when it is discovered, nary a word about their implied accusation.

When the dinner begins, the lights go out and when turned back again, it is discovered that show more Mrs. Reynards diamond lavalier is missing.

Once again, Piggins is mentioned as a possible suspect.
Saving the day, Piggins discovers it was Mr. & Mrs. Rat who took the babble.

While not one of Yolen's best, it is a delightful tale with an underlying theme of how rich perceive those they deem beneath them. show less

This is one of those rare perfect books that transports you completely into its pages and guides you along a twisting, enchanted path overgrown with wonders and delights until you emerge at the end, calmly satisfied from your travels. Jane Yolen's story-telling is as lovely as ever and has little rhyming spells sprinkled throughout that make the tale seem as though you are there at its unfolding. The illustrations are truly marvelous and curl up around the text which is printed on a softly show more glowing golden wash. Flowering vines climb up around the borders of many of the pages. The tale has a little orphaned girl set against a wicked witch who comes looking for an enchanted treasure. Before her mother dies she gives the little girl a beautiful golden comb as a keepsake. The witch puts a spell on the child to try to force her into revealing the location of the enchanted treasure that she knows has to be somewhere nearby. The animals of the forest befriend the little girl and in the end a wonderful justice occurs. The story is so precious and has a thoughtful message to suggest. This has a lot of the ingredients that you've seen in countless other fairy tales but here they seem so freshly tender and heart-touching. show less