#308 of 1001 · June 4, 2021

It’s always fascinating to consider the origin of old wives’ tales. Did they all start purely as folkloric entertainment? Did any of them perhaps form around a kernel of truth? Here’s an eerie bit of invented lore that can’t possibly have a basis in reality...or can it? In Joanne Robertson and László Gál’s Sea Witches, a young boy recalls his Scottish grandmother’s peculiar warning to crumble his eggshells into tiny pieces when he has finished eating. This admonition evidently serves to thwart the plans of witches, who prowl around looking for eggshell halves, which they can transform into seafaring vessels. Once on the water, purely for their own foul amusement, they conjure up storms that sink ships and drown sailors. All this witchcraft unfurls as a story within a story, an extended quotation of a bit of folk wisdom. Despite the grandmother’s Scottish roots, Robertson makes the distinctive choice to structure her text as a series of haiku, a poetic form of Japanese origin. Gál’s witches are truly monstrous, clustering together in a fell swarm as they slaver for mischief and bloodsport. Perhaps the utility of such a story for adults is simply the old-world tactic of frightening children into compliance. There certainly isn’t a bit of truth to such superstition, we worldly adults tell ourselves. Or is there? After all, though we may be confident there’s nothing there in the dark, every now and then we still find ourselves glancing over our shoulders...just to be sure. #sea #witches #witch #egg #eggs #shell #shells #boat #ship #ocean #storm #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #picturebook #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks