Author Description

There was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt's stories. She told him that if he could reach the place where the end of the rainbow stands he would find there a golden key. "And what is the key for?" the boy would ask. "What is it the key of? What will it open?""That nobody knows," his aunt would reply. "He has to find that out."When he learns about the golden key, young Mossy becomes determined to find it. But getting the golden key is the easy part. The harder task is discovering what it unlocks. He and a runaway girl named Tangle set out to find the key's purpose- and discover their own along the way.George MacDonald's beloved Victorian fairy tale is lavishly illustrated with fort-eight pictures in scratchboard by children's book artist Ruth Sanderson. Sanderson split the story into chapters to appeal to a middle grade audience. MacDonald's great-grandson Christopher MacDonald writes: "Now with the wonderful illustrations of Ruth Sanderson, I think we can see a real balance between Art and Literature....Ruth's extraordinarily detailed creations are as multi-layered as the story itself.""Sanderson's illustrations are deeply textured and dramatic, enhancing the vivid imagery of the narrative with many full pages and spreads."-School Library Journal"Sanderson's dramatic black and white scratchboard illustrations bring grace and depth to this story."-The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books