Writer of Kidlit & Weird Stuff
For three days I've been reading and rereading author-illustrator Faith Pray's debut picture book, The Starkeeper, and I'm still in awe. There's so much depth to this little book, that it can be read on so many levels; children can enjoy it as well as highly literary adults who don't ordinarily read children's books. It's that good.
The Starkeeper is the story of a girl living in a dark world who finds a bright star in a fountain. At first she wants to keep it for herself, but then the star begins to grow dim. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I'll say it reminds me a lot of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parcival, an Arthurian grail story in which the grail is not a cup, but a stone which had fallen from the sky. The hero knight's mission is to heal the world which has become a waste land, and only accomplishes this mission through a spontaneous display of compassion. The dream-like imagery and the mythological and folkloric motifs of the book are just begging for critical analysis, and at some point I'd like to try my hand at it. Faith Pray has really set the bar high with this one. The shorter version: I love this book. Seriously, check it out. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/604696/the-starkeeper-by-faith-pray/
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AboutHi, I'm Brian. I write children's and speculative works. I live in the greater Seattle area with my wife, two kids, and a demon cat named Pharaoh. Archives
April 2021
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