Author: Joan Aiken
Genre: Children’s fiction, Short Story
About the book…
Written by Joan Aiken in the 1968, this book consists of eight short, yet whimsical, stories meant for younger readers.
What I think…
This is the fifth collection of stories I have read by Joan Aiken (not to mention a few of her full length books) and although it is intended for a young age group, I was not at all disappointed.
All the stories have a fairy tale quality to them ranging in subject matter from a necklace made of raindrops (as indicated by the title), a giant cat, characters that come out of books, an angry landlord, and a magical quilt. As with her other collections, one story stood out to me far more than the others. In this case, it is the charming “There’s Some Sky in This Pie” which is about a woman who accidentally rolls a piece of the sky into her pie dough resulting in a pie that once baked starts to fly away.
The illustrations in this edition are by Kevin Hawkes and have a resemblance to those of Garth Williams (of Charlotte’s Web, The Rescuers, etc…). While lovely, I do wish that I would have paid attention to the fact that the original illustrations were by Jan Pienkowski, as his work is particularly beautiful and there is an edition available with them.
To sum it all up…
This is a wonderful little collection of children’s stories by Joan Aiken that thoroughly captures her imaginative storytelling skills. If you don’t mind reading children’s books, this is one I would highly recommend. ♥
