When the Wind Bears Go Dancing - Softcover

Phoebe Stone is the author of All the Blue Moons at the Wallace Hotel, which the Boston Globe called, "a book full of joy and beauty" and "a true children's classic," as well as the author and illustrator of When the Wind Bears Go Dancing; Go Away, Shelley Boo!; and What Night Do the Angels Wander? She has twice received the Vermont Council on the Arts Fellowship for painting, and her work has appeared in many galleries and museums. Phoebe grew up both painting and writing in a family of novelists and poets. She lives with her husband, photographer David Carlson, and son, Ethan, in Middlebury, Vermont.

A rhyme to soften the roar of thunderclouds and the flash of lightning by transforming them. Stone's verse and lush pastel illustrations convert a scary thunderstorm into a dance party of wind bears, lions, tigers, and other creatures. When the bears shake their coats, raindrops fall, and the laughter of tigers makes zigzags of lightning race through the sky. It's a grand hullabaloo, and the little girl who narrates joins in the dancing with glee. When it's all over, the child and wind bears pile into an orange convertible: The bears then curl up in treetops and float away, while the girl goes back to her bedroom, where she observes the storm clouds departing. Stone's woolly cloud creatures will bring comfort to little ones distressed by thunder claps; a striking nighttime palette of purple, deep blue, and orange perfectly counters any sentimentalism in the text. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.