Through the Tempests Dark and Wild: A Story of Mary Shelley, Creator of Frankenstein

WHAT a book! Hauntingly illustrated and absolutely riveting, this book entranced me, never mind my daughter (who has since named her toy lamb Mary Shelley).

Sharon Darrow's story of Mary Shelly, creator of Frankenstein, comes to life in the picturebook story Through The Tempests Dark And Wild, which will require good reading skills or parental assistance for the picturebook crowd. Fact and fiction blend in this survey of Shelley's life and writing talents.

Award-winning illustrator Angela Barrett utilizes luminous watercolor illustrations to vivify the life of Mary Shelley. Author Darrow skillfully weaves some fictionalized accounts into the facts known about Mary Shelley's life. Born August 30, 1797, Mary was the child of two famous writers, philosopher William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Sadly, the elder Mary died only a few days after her daughter's birth. As a child Mary told stories, often ghost stories, and she spoke of a girl who could not forget the mother she had never known. She also read the books written by her parents in which they envisioned a better world with education and freedom for all. Her relationship with her father was to change when he remarried. There were disagreements between young Mary and her stepmother. So, at the age of fourteen she was sent to Scotland to live with friends, the Baxters. One can imagine that the child was bereft; she had lost her mother and now her father turned from her. But the Baxters offered her not only love but intellectual stimulation as well. Some are of the opinion that Mary's Gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein, began to grow in her mind during this time. Mary later eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. She was to write novels, plays, stories, and poems. Today, some 200 years after her birth, she is well remembered. "Through the Tempests Dark and Wild" is masterfully presented, and would be a valuable addition to the libraries of all young readers. - Gail Cooke