Mary Mary - Hardcover

Sarah Hayes has written numerous stories for children, including the picture books

Grade 1-3-- In this British import, contrary Mary refuses to fear the giant who lives on the hill above her town. She marches up to his house and, after a mishap with a gargantuan teardrop, finds herself visiting indoors. Here she meets someone with whom she can agree. Under Mary's management, the two straighten out the giant's appearance and his messy household. After a tea-cup bath, Mary delivers the giant's invitation to the townspeople to come and play at his house. In lighthearted line and wash, the solid, affectionate homeyness of the pictures, with their jumble of details of ordinary life transposed to a giant's abode, builds a comfortably credible universe, while the visual play with scale, showing common objects made huge against Mary's small size, has great appeal to fans of little-people stories. References in both text and pictures to standard motifs--a fearless child, a neighborhood giant, a Lilliputian scene, a misperceived menace made benign and useful by understanding--set the story into a larger context of tale telling. A book in which the airiness and large format perfectly suit the story's playfulness and setting.
- Karen Litton, London Public Libraries, Ontario, Canada
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