Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Charles Vess

In cadence and intent, this book reminds me of the the Irish prayer for a child which begins, “God keep my jewel this day from danger,/From tinker and pooka and black-hearted stranger…”

Neil Gaiman’s lyrical and incantatory  prayer in verse addresses not God but rather the Three Fates (”ladies of grace, ladies of favor, ladies of merciful night”) and in addition to petitioning for protection, it also asks for courage, wisdom, big dreams and adventures. The illustrations by Charles Vess are pure genius, and remind me of a frolicsome Arthur Rackham. I predict this book will be one of the over-and-over choices at bedtime, and other times too — one that parents will not weary of.

In addition to ordering this book for my four-year-old granddaughter, I am also thinking that, with a check tucked inside, it would make a beguiling high school graduation gift for another, bigger Blueberry Girl. I never, ever liked the stupefacient tale of Sleeping Beauty,  so I particularly appreciate this wish for an adolescent girl, “Keep her from spindles and sleeps at sixteen/Let her stay waking and wise.”

Neil Gaiman, recipient of the 2009 Newbury Medal, is also the creator of Coraline. Listen to him read Blueberry Girl, and get a peek at the illustrations in this clip. Like it? Or not?