Product Description

What happens when it's bimulous and the sky is like lace? Strange and splendid things! Otters sing, trees dance, and the grass is like gooseberry jam. There's a special party that anyone can attend. Anyone, that is, who knows the rules and isn't afraid of plum-purple shadows, can cook spaghetti and would like to teach a new song to the otters.

Back by popular demand, this whimsical picture book illustrated by Caldecott Medal-winner Barbara Cooney's lush watercolors is as resonant today as when it was first published almost thirty years ago.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #594951 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

About the Author
Elinor Lander Horwitz is the author of a number of books for young and adult readers including How To Wreck a Building, Sometimes It Happens and Contemporary American Folk Artists.

Barbara Cooney (1917-2000) is the author and illustrator of many books for young readers including Miss Rumphius, Eleanor, Island Boy, and Hattie and the Wild Waves. She is one of the few illustrators to have received the Caldecott Award twice, for Chanticleer and the Fox in 1959 and for Ox-Cart Man in 1980.

Customer Reviews

A Most Extraordinary Book
My children grew up loving this book and I love sharing it with them. Many evenings were spent reading the imaginative text ("the fern deep grove at the midnight end of the garden" and grass that "feels like the velvet inside a very old violin case")and savoring the exquisite illustrations. Both words and pictures never failed to transport us to a mystical, magical place. The interactive style of writing draws the readers into the story making them integral characters. Every child should have the opportunity to dream and have the fun of choosing (among other things) juggling peaches, pretending to be a helicopter and jumping up and down in the mud. Although my children are now grown, the three of us can still quote lines (actually, we can practically recite the book verbatim). None of us can hear the "Mexican Hat Dance" without thinking of the otter's song. We tresure our copy and look forward to reading it to the next generation and introducing them to the "strange splendid" things that happen when the sky is like lace. Just for insurance (in case anything should happen to our well worn and well loved copy), I purchased a used copy for an outrageous price, but it is worth every penny. How I wish this book would come back into print. I would buy copies for every child I know. Gracious, I have developed a craving for spaghetti with pineapple sauce!

The best childrens' book of all time!!!
So I was ABOUT to pay $132 for an out of print version of this book when I saw it had been reprinted!!! I feel like its Christmas. This was my FAVORITE book as a child. I have an old color photocopy that I have read every day to my 13 months old since he was 6 months old. Its SO battered and falling apart - but he still picks it to have me read to him every time. He LOVES it. If you want for you and your little one to be transported to where everything is strange splendid and plum perfect - GET this book. It is pure magic. I am going to buy copies for everyone I know with kids!

*LEWIS CARROLL LIVES AGAIN IN MYSTICAL 'LACY SKIES'*
Lewis Carroll lives on in the *BIMULOUS* sky created by Elinor Lander Horwitz and illustrator Barbara Cooney. It probably rates as one of the top ten picture books among readers who agitate for reprints! And how satisfying to report success!

If children as young as three years old clamor to have 'lacy skies' read to them, I wonder if it is primarily for the fascinating, mystical illustrations, OR, are little ones swept away by the language that seems to have descended from the 'nonsense rhymes' of Lewis Carroll? The fantasy in "When The Sky Is Like Lace" is carried along by both words and paintings, and the vocabulary is eagerly, laughingly adopted into the language of children - - and adult readers, too. Barbara Cooney was an author-illustrator with an enthusiastic 'following' who champion favorite titles, such as "Roxaboxen," "Miss Rumpius", "Island Boy." In this lovely book the three girls glide barefoot over grass that "feels like the velvet inside a very old violin case" and svelte otters dance like humans.

"If you see the man in the moon wink - especially through a clean white handkerchief - YOU may soon see a BIMULOUS SKY" and be wafted away to memorable adventures. Brought forth are wonderful RULES - - for what to eat on those nights, what to sing, the kinds of gifts that are appropriate to exchange (my favorite being "anything chartreuse") . All the senses are heightened by the artists's line & color that blends so perfectly with the words of Elinor Horwitz. Reviewer mcHAIKU would write more but on the author's advice I have chosen to ride a camel bareback (while juggling three peaches).