May the Stars Drip Down

by Jeremy Chatelain, Nikki McClure

Overview

May the stars drip down light on you, And you close your eyes to see the moon, And sleep will pull you through. May the starlight find you. Thus begins the gorgeous lullaby “May the Stars Drip Down” by indie rock band Cub Country, now adapted into a beautiful bedtime book with illustrations by the acclaimed cut-paper artist Nikki McClure. McClure’s tender and intricate images, inspired by nature and the intense bond between parent and child, perfectly complement musician Jeremy Chatelain’s soothing lyrics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613126561
Publisher:	Abrams, Harry N., Inc.
Publication date:	03/11/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	AD430L (what's this?)
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jeremy Chatelain has toured the world as a musician with a number of different bands, and today he is the driving force behind indie rock band Cub Country. He lives in Salt Lake City with his family. Nikki McClure is the author and illustrator of Collect Raindrops; Mama, Is It Summer Yet?; To Market, To Market; Apple; and How to Be a Cat; and is the illustrator of All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant. She lives in Olympia, Washington. Visit nikkimcclure.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/14/2014
Using a palette of inky midnight blue, white, and pale gold, McClure's torn paper compositions bring a sense of movement, mystery, and dimension to musician Chatelain's evocative lullaby. As a mother and young child cuddle close, white specks of stars, rings of light, and wavelike celestial patterns stand boldly against dark swaths of land and sky, creating a contrast that is reminiscent of woodprint. The melodic rhymes conjure wild and sweeping imagery, amid well-wishing for the boy's future journeys: "The wind blows grasses green and blue/ May the path gently lead you./ To a coastline town where porch lights blink,/ Till the last house slowly falls asleep,/ While waves roll in forevermore./ May you walk the sandy shore." In one spread, the boy peers with almost savage independence from behind tall meadow grasses. Yet at the finale, the mother (advanced in age) continues to comfort and hold her sleeping offspring: "Then the morning light comes gently in,/ And you wake to sunshine and the wind,/ Whose whispers will ring true./ May I always have you./ May I always have you." Ages 3–7. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

05/01/2014
PreS-K—There is something unsettling, rather than soothing, about the lyrics of this lullaby: "May the sand wash over you." "Where the seaweed and the starfish hide,/You'll float away on waves of blue." It's hard to know what these images are intended to convey, beyond an oblique, vague, poetic sensibility. McClure's cut-paper illustrations display assured technique but do little to illuminate the meaning of the words. Perhaps it all hangs together better when one hears the music, which a note on the verso invites readers to download from the Abrams website.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY

School Library Journal

★ 2014-02-05
In this achingly loving interpretation of the indie band Cub Country's lullaby, a mother cuddles her sleepy son, picturing his dream wanderings in the natural world and wishing him well on his nighttime journeys. McClure's cut– and torn–black-paper illustrations carve out nocturnal landscapes in shadowy blues and blacks, with white bringing lightness in sharp relief. The boy shifts shape, turning into a fox, an owl, a seabird and even a fluttering leaf. Young readers will flip back to the book's endpapers, pointing to the cherished toys and objects scattered in the boy's bedroom that drift into his dreams. Marvelous double-page spreads feel like nature hunts themselves in their beautiful complexity, initiated on the first page with a full moon that's dotted with light by small, circular cutouts. And with a page turn, the boy's sleeping breath turns to stardust, and readers float off with him across sparkling sand dunes and rippling grasses. Many of the song's lyrics will be lost in the ether. "And there will come a new dune. / May the sand wash over you." Children won't know what to make of such lines, but McClure's masterful illustrations make both the mother's intense connection to her son and his dazzling dreams lucid. (The song is available for download on the publisher's website.) A richly imagined dreamscape in a feat of paper artistry. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews