1 review for Ancient Night

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Leslie McKiever (verified owner) – 04/30/2025

   Review: Ancient Night, Created and illustrated by David Alvarez and text by David Bowles. A hardcover picture book published by Levine Querido (March 14, 2023.) Ancient Night is a wonderful melding of Mesoamerican origin myth, fable, and trickster tales. This gorgeous book created by David Alvarez is his first book illustrated in color, and his first published in English. After initially releasing Noche Antigua as a wordless picture book in Mexico, Alvarez teamed with author David Bowles and publisher Levine Querido. Bowles’ lyrical text elevates Noche Antigua from a superb picture book into a magnificent one. Ancient Night and Noche Antigua were released simultaneously in English and Spanish. This book is a brilliant addition to any library, particularly elementary and middle school libraries. Ancient Night teaches young children the use of figurative language and critical thinking skills while also providing a conduit to explore the early Mesoamerica culture. This stunningly illustrated text is also a mesmerizing story that simply entertains. “At the start of things” when the universe was vast and dark and stars were far away, the only bright light in the heavens was the bright shining moon. And, Rabbit. The Rabbit and the moon have been coupled in several different stories in Mesoamerican lore, and interestingly enough, the moon and the rabbit figure in many Asian folktales too. The Nahua version of the story (in the front flap of the dust jacket) tells that the Feathered Serpent placed the rabbit on the moon as caretaker after the rabbit had selflessly offered himself as food to the feathered serpent when he walked as a man on the earth. “A Note From The Creators”, a valuable appendix, offers different renditions of the story; it can be found in at the back of the book.The dependable, hardworking Rabbit has a very important job to keep the moon glowing brightly in the heavens. When the light begins to lose its luster, Rabbit climbs down the Great Cieba’s trunk to earth. This great tree connects all worlds together: the canopy holds up the heavens; the trunk connects the heavens to the earth; and the roots burrow into the underworld. Rabbit then travels across vast landscapes to gather the aguamiel (nectar) from the “first and Holy” maguey (agave.) Unbeknownst to Rabbit, the wily Possum, both trickster, and savior, has watched the light of the moon wane and wax. He stealthily trails the Rabbit until he witnesses Rabbit refilling the moon with the glowing elixir. When the Rabbit is out of sight, the Possum pierces the moon and absconds with the sacred nectar. The moon, once a glowing orb, is now cracked and dark. Rabbit quickly spots a bouncing ball of light in the distance and she promptly catches up to Opossum as he guzzles the shimmering sap. The Opossum is filled with regret as he looks at the ruined moon in the dark sky. And so begins his road to redemption and the resolution to this story – the birth of the sun. The Mesoamerican worldview winds and flows through Ancient Night like a sacred river of aguamiel: light, dark, heaven, earth, solid, ethereal, selfish, altruistic, extinction, birth, valiant, indifferent. Duality is the essence of the Mesoamerican worldview. The interaction of each independent, but complementary pair creates tension that culminates into action that drives the storyline forward. The masculine Opossum introduction into the tale leads to an adversarial pairing with the feminine Rabbit. Quickly the relationship evolves after the Opossum’s redemption, Rabbit and he become guardians of the light and friends. If duality can provide tension and change, it too can provide balance and equilibrium. Moon finds the sun, aguamiel, honey water, pairs with fire, and night gives rise to day. With the Mesoamerican worldview well focused in his mind’s eye, David Alvarez creates a color pallet that paints the dualistic ideal from cover to cover; a muted rusty red that is likely a red ochre made from clays with iron oxide and one of the oldest reds used in painting and a turquoise blue. Soft curves and the blue color suggest Rabbit is feminine. With its curved, almost womblike center, the blue maguey plant is the epitome of femininity. Blue is the humid, the cold, the water, and the night. Wily Opossum is red, pointed, sharp, and extremely masculine. The red colors the hot, the fire, and the day. Both colors compose the Great Ceiba’s canopy and the red ochre and turquoise trunks intertwine to form one trunk–the two halves have formed one. Although David Alvarez laid down his graphite pencil for paint brushes, he didn’t leave behind the light and shadows. In part, he achieved this by laying down a background of acrylic overlain by thin layers of oil paints. Simplistic yet complex, much like Mesoamerican folklore, the illustrations are instantly appealing as they conjure up the ancient with a modern twist. Today’s readers tend to take these stories as literal beliefs of a simple, naïve population rather than realize these ancient civilizations communicated in a highly figurative speech full of allegory and metaphor. This is a five-star children’s picture book for preschool through middle school. Author David Bowles has written or translated many superb Mesoamerican folklore titles for an older middle school audience, including The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americas which he translated. It is subtly alluded to in Ancient Night. This fall he has The Prince and the Coyote, a biography of Nezahualcoyotl, written for young adults being published. This reader hopes that the two Davids will join forces to create another mesmerizing picture book.