THE GIRL WHO CRIED FLOWERS

Tears never fell from her eyes. Instead blossoms cascaded down her cheeks: scarlet, gold, and blue in the spring, and snow-white in the fall." Besides the heroine of the title story there is a fearful giant named Night-Walker who steals laughing young Dawn-Strider, bringer of the sun, but is himself transformed to a kindly "Sun-Walker" by a child's innocent courage . . . a "girl who wanted to know the future" and so becomes apprenticed to "The Weaver of Tomorrow" . . . a "Lad Who Stared Everyone Down" until he challenges the sun itself which seems to "grow and change and blossom" until it has "burned its image into his eyes." . . . and at last "Silent Bianca" whose "face was like crystal with the features etched in" and "her words were formed soundlessly into tiny slivers of ice." In Bianca, Yolen might be describing her own glittering imagery and crystal prose, which is matched here in grace and elegance by Palladini's art nouveau loveliness and shadowed hints of mystery. A showpiece, for those who can forgo the tough wisdom of traditional fairy tales for a masterful imitation of the manner.