When the Sky Is Like Lace

Haunting and dreamlike, this picture book describes the strange-splendid and plum-purple things that can happen on a night when the sky is like lace.

On a night on which anything, you think, can and indeed will happen, three girls venture out to listen to otters sing, eat spaghetti with pineapple sauce, and watch trees dance. Horwitz's text is just as innovative as it was forty years ago, complete with invented words and nouns put to use as verbs ("trees eucalyptus back and forth"). Barbara Cooney's paintings complete the magic, using wispy and playful watercolors, a lesser-known and softer style than used in some of her more well-known books.