cover image Behowl the Moon: An Ageless Story from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Behowl the Moon: An Ageless Story from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

Erin Nelson Parekh, illus. by Mehrdokht Amini. Drivel and Drool, $9.99 (22p) ISBN 978-0-9984397-1-6

Parekh excerpts two sections of Puck’s speeches at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which Amini (Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns) brings to haunting life in illustrations that help clarify the Shakespearean language. As “the heavy ploughman snores,” night falls and an assembly of creatures that includes a lion, wolf, donkey, fairies, and three sprites released from their graves cavort across a landscape of blackened hills and trees. The imagery is dark, even startling at times, yet the closing scenes show these unlikely companions gathering tenderly around a campfire before falling asleep. An unusual and lovely introduction to the rhythms and cadences of Shakespeare’s writing. Up to age 3. (BookLife)