You guessed it. Time for a new book from Star Pine!
Well, new in a sense. A generous excerpt from Beastie
appeared in Andrew Blauner’s anthology Central Park a few years back, but the
new Star Pine edition marks the first time the story has been available in its
entirety. With pictures, no less.
To be brief and (I hope) enticing, Beastie is the story of my
first encounter with the eponymous creature that lives in Central Park, who
sleeps through the day in his little den at the bottom of Belvedere Castle, and
only comes out at night “to forage in the trees for midnight luncheon” as the
poem says, and to awaken the various statues who call the park home.
But I may already have said too much…
The account, set in the long-ago of my own fourth-grade
year, has been written for everyone, but I would in particular recommend it to
the young at heart, especially those whose hearts are, oh, eight years old and
up, but especially especially to
those hearts familiar with the park and its most crawl-able statuary. An admitted gluttony for baseball and baseball gloves wouldn’t hurt neither, but
is not required.
I will below attach some of the drawings that have made their
way onto the pages, along with a taste of the aforementioned poem - but only a
taste - all by way of inviting you and yours to come and, at the proper hour,
meet His Pointy-eared and Finger-nailed and Sharp-toothéd Majesty the Beastie, shaggy
Beastie, Lord of the Lamp Post!
It’s only when the
moon eludes the cloud-bank,
and every peering
bedroom light goes dim,
when darkness looms
in quiet rooms,
and closets stand
like mummy’s tombs,
and the last
child’s dream is finally entered in,
that’s when the
shadow slips out from its dungeon,
and tumbles down to
fetch itself a drink,
to forage in the
trees for midnight luncheon,
and just like that
make chiseled eyelids blink,
and fingers twitch,
and noses itch
and round bronze
shoulders sink.
From meer to lake,
they’ll all awake,
From bridle path,
to reservoir, to rink…
(from the
poem “Beastie: Lord or the Lamp Post,” by Anonymous
and now, a few drawrings from inside...
