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Dusk

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Dusk
by Uri Shulevitz
Farrar Straus Giroux, 2013.  Unpaged. Picture Book

     The inimitable Uri Shulevitz adds a new atmospheric tale to previous titles Dawn and Snow with an equally lovely picture book about the shortest days and longest nights of the year.  "Boy with dog and grandfather with beard go for a walk" as the story begins.  All save the dog have rosy cheeks.  It has snowed and is cold, the pale yellow light of a December dusk illuminates but doesn't warm. Many are out on the city streets, shopping for Christmas or Hanukkah. The rapidly darkening sky is held back by bright street lamps, holiday lights, and the glow from showroom windows. "Dusk" is a lovely, lovely book, tinged with the melancholy of the dark of the year. Not sure the space alien who speaks a convincingly Eastern European nonsense language is that great an idea, but everything else works beautifully.
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