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Synopsis
It can be lonely sometimes on a rainy day in a big house with no one else around and there’s only the quiet to keep you company. But if you find a key, a mysterious key, that leads you to an unexpected place . . . chances are your afternoon is about to get a lot more interesting.
Publishers Weekly
Like her previous titles (Museum Trip; The Red Book), Lehman's new book follows a lone child on a magical wordless journey. But this one celebrates a slightly more plausible trip, and offers its hero friendship. As the book opens, a boy dressed neatly in short pants and a tie listlessly kicks his ball around a stately gray manor house on a rainy day. He finds an old key under a chair, and, after a couple of false starts, locates the trunk it opens. Within the trunk, a ladder leads down into a tunnel, a long passageway and then a winding staircase up again. He emerges atop a sunny island lighthouse, where he's greeted by three children. In Lehman's watercolors, the landscape emerges in sturdy forms and cheerful solid hues, an ideal setting for the magnificent day the boy spends with his new friends, flying kites and playing catch. The boy's contentment shows in his bare feet and open shirt. Better still, unlike most magical journeys, this one can be repeated. The next day is another wet one, and the boy, hurrying through the tunnel, meets the lighthouse children coming the other way toward him. Lehman's creation recalls old-fashioned English adventure stories that use charmed means to bring coddled children outdoors for healthy fun. Now even nonreaders can have a magic adventure story of their very own; they'll treasure it. Ages 3-5. (Apr.)
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