Shadow

Shadow lives in the forest...It goes forth at nightto prowl around the fires.It even likes to minglewith the dancers...Shadow...It waves with the grasses,curls up at the foot of trees...But in the African experience Shadow is much more. The village storytellers and shamans of an Africa that is passing into memory called forth for the poet Blaise Cendrars an eerie image, shifting between the beliefs of the present and the spirits of the past.Shadow...It does not cry out,it has no voice...It can cast a spell over you...It follows man everywhere,even to war...Marcia Brown's stunning illustrations in collage, inspired by her travels in Africa, evoke the atmosphere and drama of a life now haunted, now enchanted by Shadow.

Marcia Brown is an eminent talent in the children's book world. She has twice won the Caldecott Medal (for Cinderella and Once a Mouse...), and five of her books have been Caldecott Honor books: Stone Soup, Henry -- Fisherman, Dick Whittington and His Cat, Puss in Boots, and The Steadfast Tin Soldier. She was awarded the Regina Medal in 1977 by the Catholic Library Association, and has twice been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal.