THE FAERIE’S GIFT

A pretty tale “found in many forms across many cultures” wrapped around a lovely message about wishes and words. A poor woodcutter who lives with his childless wife, his blind mother, and his silent, elderly father saves a faerie from the talons of a hawk. The faerie man, in gratitude, places in the woodcutter’s hand a single, small, bright wish. The woodcutter carries it home, where his wife begs him to wish for a child, his mother implores him to wish for the return of her sight, and his father insists he needs to wish for gold to keep them warm and fed at last. The woodcutter walks “the day to its end” and finally finds just the right wish to bring happiness to everyone. Ceccoli’s (An Island in the Sun, not reviewed) full-page paintings (in acrylics and oil pastels) face text pages decorated with head- and tail-pieces: the colors have the warm texture and deep color of pastels with the clear edges and three-dimensional solidity of acrylics. She elongates her characters and often paints them from two angles like Egyptian tomb figures, stretching spatial planes and architectural forms to give her images a rich, dreamlike quality. A different sort of wishing story, not three, but only one and what thinking hard outside expectations might bring. (Picture book/folktale. 4-8)