Pagan Kids Book Review - Lammas 2001


Moonhorse by Mary Pope Osborne, 1991, Dragonfly Books, ISBN # 0-679-86709-0. A young girl rocking on her dads lap finds herself feeling alone because her dad has fallen asleep before they can wish on the first star of the night. Out of the night comes the moonhorse. The girl climbs on the horse and off they go into the night sky. They fly over mountains and over the twilight. After landing on a star, they lasso the new moon. They pull very hard and together they pull the moon through the sky. They ride past stars and night shadows, constellations and comets. This incredibly well illustrated bedtime story opens the door to the world of dreams. This is great to read to very young children but also as a beginning reader for first though third grade kids. I know that in my house both girls and boy truly treasure this tale.

Nicholas Pipe by Robert D. San Souci and David Shannon, 1997, Dial Books, ISBN # 0-8037-1764-4. This story is based on a brief account of a witty storyteller and noted figure at the court of Henry II. Nicholas Pipe is a merman. Through a magic spell he walks on two legs when on land and while beneath the waves he can swim with his powerful fishtail. A young woman falls in love with Nicholas Pipe but is not aloud to even so much as say hello to him for her father blames him and the other sea-folk for the death of his son. When Nicholas saves Margaret and her father, she tells her father that she can no longer stay away from Nicholas. In anger, her father leaves to see to it that Nicholas will be out of his daughters life, one way or another. In the end, Margarets father learns his lesson and knowing that their love will never be easy as Margaret is a child of the earth and Nicholas is a child of the sea, love prevails.

The Sapphire Princess Meets a Monster by Jahnna N. Malcolm, 1997, Scholastic Inc., ISBN # 0-590-21284-2. This is the second book of the Jewel Kingdom books. My oldest daughter loves these books so much that she has now gotten some of her school friends reading these great books. In this book the lesson learned is one that try as we may, we all tend to forget even as adults. When the Sapphire Princess and her friends see the blue lake monster, they are all very scared because of how incredibly ugly it is. The people of the land wish to kill it because of their fear. As with many things in life, looks can be deceiving. The monster turns out to be a wonderfully kind and loving creature that also saves the Sapphire Princess from death.

Ring of Earth by John Wallner, 1986, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich publishers, ISBN # 0-15-332979-3. This book is geared for younger children. For each season there are fabulous pictures to go with a short poem. For winter it is a song of the weasel that knows what the nose does. With each scent described kids wiggle closer and pretend that they too can smell the season. With spring comes the Peeper and the snowmelts. The birds sing and life begins to show. Summers ever so famous dragonflys flutter ever so briefly into being. Finally autumn flies in with the goose and so the cycle continues. The first time I read this with my children, they were begging me to read it again even though they know I only read a book once a day as there are just to many wonderful books to read only one title all the time.

The Desert is Theirs by Byrd Baylor, 1975, Atheneum books, ISBN # 0-684-14266-x. In this book a very simple message is given. About the hawks, deer, and pack rats, the hard skinny plants, and the strong brown desert people who call the earth their mother. They never say the land is to do with as I please. They know they only share her. That the land belongs to the spider and the ant the same as it does to people. A year that is hard for people is hard for everyone. When it does rain, it is a blessing shared by all. Even the dry earth makes a sound of joy when the rain touches her.
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Tina of Hawthorn Circle at the age of 30 is the mom of five daughters, ages 16, 8, 7, 3, and 2. Tina also plays an active part in the Pagan community in Portland, Oregon. She has been knowingly walking this spiritual path since the early 1980's.