THE CASTLE BUILDER

Macmillan, 1987. 1st Edition 3rd Printing. Hardcover. New/As New. Dennis Nolan B&W illustrations. CONDITION: UNREAD, but not quite perfect, 1987 Macmillan hardcover (gray boards with embossed griffin) and dust jacket (in mylar cover), first edition, 3rd printing. The DJ is in a pink/red metallic material and does show a bit of edge wear - not bad, but there. Interior is clean and tight. Wonderful B&W illustrations by the Author. CONTENT: A young boy fills his bucket with wet sand to build a sandcastle. Soon the walls are raised and towers reach toward the sky. Carefully placing his little toy inside the castle gate, he becomes Sir Christopher, builder of castles who tames a roaring dragon and battles the ship of the Black Knights, driving it back to the sea. But one thing goes awry with the boy's special creation: he cannot order the waves to stop pounding on the castle walls. What's left is nothing but a day's dreaming on the sandy beach, and the boy vows to try again tomorrow. Nolan's poetic construction conjoins two opposing imagesshort-lived sandcastles and the everlasting sands. Black quill-pen dots form a mosaic that outlines the boy's microworld, creating photograph-like pictures in halftones that exhibit startling clarity. Ages 5-8.