Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class. They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child. Helen Gregory, Grosse Pointe Public Library, MIĬopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. Complete words and music would have been a plus, but all those who enjoy a romantic ghost story will never forget Polly Vaughn. The traditional ballad came from England and Ireland where it was known as ``Molly Bawn.'' Moser quotes two lines from one version in his afterword. The redheaded lovers are not pretty, just real, almost breathing. Artistic in every way, the illustrations, layout, print, even the paper are an experience in fine bookmaking. Dark watercolor character studies are typical of Moser's impeccable style. After a few cloying kidbits and countryisms, such as ``kinleygarten,'' ``chile,'' ``Jimmer,'' he lets the story, as good stories will, tell itself. Moser fleshes out an Appalachian ballad with full characters and a vivid setting.

Polly's ghost is the only one to defend Jimmy and the lovers are reunited only in death.

A week before their wedding day, mistaking his bride for a deer, Jimmy accidentally kills her and is brought to trial for murder. Grade 4 Up- Montagues and Capulets, Hatfields and McCoys, Randalls and Vaughns: echoing literary history, Jimmy Randall proposes to childhood sweetheart Polly Vaughn, despite a longstanding family feud.

Polly Vaughn by Barry Moser