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Book Review of Past Eight O'Clock

Past Eight O'Clock
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All of the tales in this book are all concerned with sleeping and waking, dreams and bedtime. Each of the eight stories in this book is woven around the theme of a familiar lullaby or bedtime song: in the title story Weaselly Winkle, the spiteful Child Warden, is ready to pounce on any child who breaks the bed-time curfew in the town of Troy-on-the-Water. In "Bye, Baby Bunting" there is only one way to lift the curse of sleeplessness which falls on the Bunting family when one of its members shoots Lord Fossil's peacock. "Oh, Can Ye Sew Cushions"? tells of a house where, on a particular day of the year, if the sun shines on a special spot just when a certain song is sung--who knows what might happen?

Helpful crows,a malicious kelpie, the magic of numbers, Gladiolus the invisible cat, and a girl who dreams of her future brother, all figure in these bedtime stories by Jane Aiken. Illustrations by the incomparable Jan Pienkowski magnificently complement the text.