The Shooing Cave

A brave boy explores a dark cave. When he encounters the mysterious Stark, he tries to ignore it and shoo it away. But amid the wonders of the cave, the curious Stark keeps showing up, until the boy can ignore him no longer. In recounting the story of a fantastic cave creature, a father explains the features of a karst cave to his little boy. A short addendum describes and defines cave features, with photographs.

"A boy and a cave-dwelling beastie encounter each other in this bedtime story. An early-elementary-age boy, tucked into bed for bedtime, asks his father (depicted, rather creepily, in silhouette) to tell him the story of the Stark. Ensuing illustrations erase any initial disquiet with their crisp luminosity, evocatively rendering the mystery and wonder of the titular cave as the story unfolds. The Stark (the father tells the boy) lives in the caves and hunts for treasure. The blue-furred Stark has a non-threatening Sesame Street-monster look. An unnamed boy (with brown, freckled skin and red, Afro-textured hair, just like the listening child) shows up to go caving, and when he sees the Stark, the boy says, #&39;Shoo!#&39;[....] One night the Stark [...] gives the boy a #&39;stone pearl,#&39; and the boy realizes the Stark means him no harm. The boy then sews a stuffed Stark #&39;baby#&39; and leaves it for the Stark to find [....] the backmatter, #&39;Cave Facts,#&39; [...] explains some of the cave phenomena mentioned but not clarified (#&39;cave pearls,#&39; #&39;walrus whiskers#&39;) in the story#&39;s body, and adds depth and interest. Luminous illustrations, interesting backmatter[...]." —Kirkus Reviews

Ingrid Lee is a writer of fiction and nonfiction for young people, whose books have been translated into multiple languages. When she is not writing or exploring, she teaches art and English. Johnny Hollick is a mixed media artist and performer from Toronto and a graduate of the University of Toronto Fine Arts program. His paintings and multimedia performances have been featured in galleries and elsewhere. Presently, his work is largely collage-based, generated digitally from textures, then reworked physically with scissors and wit.