Night of the Gargoyles

Product Information

Our children really enjoyed making clay gargoyles too – based on the work of The Gargoyle Guy (see Youtube).

Beides zusammen erst verströmt auf den Seiten jene Magie, die zu begeistern versteht und ein Lese- und Betrachtungserlebnis der ganz besonderen Art erschafft. The gargoyles in this haunting tale are mischievous as they “creep on stubs of feet…land in sleeping trees…and swoop to where a fountain splashes. I thought this book was great for development of imagination - what happens to the rest of the world when we fall asleep?PW enjoyed the ``witty and whimsical verses'' that tell the tale of a desert-dwelling duck who receives on his birthday water paraphernalia--and an inflatable pool in which to try them out. This one was read to us when I was in primary school during library time, and I fell in love with it's grey-scale images, the way that the city was alight and alive even during the night, the way that artificial light and moonlight blended with the dark and shadow to make the night even more vibrant than the day. Bunting (Washday) imagines a girl in a polka-dotted pullover watching as strangers at her family’s yard sale haggle over furniture that was hers. He creates three-dimensional models of objects he can't observe in real life, such as flying pigs and lizards standing upright, to add authenticity to his drawings. I checked out this book from my local library for my four-year-old daughter who wanted a "scary" book, and the first thing that caught my eye was the excellent art work.

Nostalgia and timeliness merge seamlessly in this uncommonly evocative picture book,"" said PW in a starred review. The gargoyles are angry at man because they have been created and placed on the top of the buildings so every night they grumble and mumble together and scare the watchman. A dread sense of the inevitable drives this taut disaster story-and makes it nearly impossible to put down. You don't need to talk about how they lick the stars and have "green-pickled tongues" and "swing on branches, da-de-da, and feel the air move cool against their pockmarked stone. Narrated by a city boy living amid crowded concrete and clamorous machines, this visit to a ""secret place"" quietly confides the treasure of a tiny bit of wilderness.Although I enjoyed the illustrations and thought they fitted the story well, they potentially would not aid children in staying engaged with the text as they read. I appreciate the illustrator's use of black and white illustrations as I believe it sets the mood for the whole story. David Wiesner uses pastels to give the book a very creepy feeling, but also, he manages to maintain a gentle, comedic feel even though gargoyles are generally described as evil and mean.

As it is quite dark and brooding in places it is only suitable for use with KS2 pupils, but it is packed full of imagery and figurative language that can be played with. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have won numerous awards in the United States and abroad. At first the illustrations seem a bit daunting but actually work very well in showing the light nature of the gargoyles. It highlighted the pockmarked concrete that they are made of, it brought their empty, unblinking eyes and hard, stone bodies to life. Because the illustrations were on point - gargoyles come to life at night and club out and cause mischief and are generally grumpy grumpsters - but the writing felt like bad poetry that tried to rhyme and gave up, so invested heavily in metaphors instead.If a teacher can efficiently explain it to their students, it is possible for a 2nd grader to understand, but the scary tone of the book might be a little much.