cover image The Butterfly Night of Old Brown Bear

The Butterfly Night of Old Brown Bear

Nicolas Van Pallandt, Nicolas Van Pallandt. Farrar Straus Giroux, $15 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-374-31009-7

This slight but lilting tale, originally published in the Netherlands, stars a gentle ursine butterfly collector. Old Brown Bear won't rest until he catches a brilliant blue moth flitting around his garden. Seizing his net, the bespectacled bruin gives chase through the fields, up a hill and into a tree. ``And still the moth flew higher,'' says the book's wistful refrain. As night falls, Bear's quest takes him into the clouds and, finally, onto the face of the moon, but the precious moth is ever out of reach. Waking from his reverie, Bear realizes that true happiness lies not in collecting but in the thrill of the chase and he joyfully sets his colorful collection free. The story's dreamy fantasy quality and expressive diction give this first picture book by van Pallandt a sweet, unpretentious charm. His varied palette conjures up a range of moods, from the sepias of a study crammed with dusty specimens to the greens and violets of the deepening twilight. Particularly striking is the full-spread vertical--the book must be rotated 90 degrees--that depicts Old Bear poised on a twig at the top of a tall elm, net in hand, his shimmering quarry silhouetted against the full moon. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)