Picks and Pans Review: The Banshee

UPDATED 05/28/1990 at 01:00 AM EDT • Originally published 05/28/1990 at 01:00 AM EDT

by Karen Ackerman; illustrated by David Ray

"This is a made-up story," Kate soon deduced. "There's no such thing. Unless it's an angel. And it doesn't look like an angel." No, more like a ghostly block of ice. Yet in this tale of the Gaelic folk spirit, the Banshee seeks "a lonely soul to keep her company," and her wails are oddly comforting. (Philomel, $14.95—ages 3-8)