CAROLINDA CLATTER

“Once there was a lonely giant who fell in love with the moon. He was the very last giant, and there was no one else large enough for him to love.” So begins Gerstein’s century-spanning fairy tale, exquisitely illustrated with expressive, whimsical, scratchy ink drawings drenched in blue moonlight or yellow sunlight. The love-struck giant, after wooing the unresponsive moon for centuries, finally falls asleep, weeping, sleeping so long he becomes a mountainous landscape upon which a village called Pupickton (pupik is Yiddish for belly button) is built on his stomach. Heeding the legend that its beloved mountain is literally a sleeping giant, the village remains very quiet (“the only sounds were whispers and the purring of cats”) until the irrepressibly musical Carolinda Clatter is born. When her exuberance finally wakens the giant, she alone must save Pupickton from his wrath. Happily, she wins him over, music and noise fill the air and the giant peacefully sleeps forevermore, finally feeling loved and dreaming of the moon. Refreshingly, marvels trump morals in this lovely, larger-than-life legend. (Picture book. 5-8)