May the Stars Drip Down, written by Jeremy Chatelain and illustrated by Nikki McClure



May the Stars Drip Down is the newest book by paper-cut illustrator Nikki McClure, written by Jeremy Chatelain, the driving force between the indie rock band, Cub Country. In fact, you can listen to Cub Country's beautiful performance of this lullaby here.



Besides being marvels of artistic endeavor, McClure's illustrations tell a parallel story alongside Chatelain's text. Really, rather than write another word, watching the video clip below will give you a complete experience of how McClure creates her illustrations and what inspirations and drives fuel her creativity. Hearing her speak so eloquently about her work is almost as moving as reading May the Stars Drip Down with your child tucked under your arm, just like the mother and son seen on the endpapers of this book.



The book begins, after the endpapers where we see a boy being read to by his mother, his prized possessions arranged about his room, with the words, "May the stars drip down light on you. And you close your eyes to see the moon." McClure's night sky has small die-cut holes in it so that light, in the right circumstances, really can drip down - or seep through.



"And sleep will pull you through. May the starlight find you." Sand and clouds, a mountain path and a lake are all part of the text while pictures travel along with the words, the boy dropping in and out of the illustrations, a fox, an owl, sandpipers and sea stars sharing the pages.



The final lines of the book ask that the warm tides carry you as the "morning light comes gently in, and you wake to the sunshine and the wind whose whispers will ring true. May I always have you." As you reach the end of the book, you realize that the animals and objects of the starlight filled dream world that the sleeping boy has visited are also the treasures found around his room on the front and back endpapers. 


May the Stars Drip Down is a stunning, subtle book about connections - a mother and a child, people and nature, sleep and wandering dreams, and the moon and the stars. It is a beautiful lullaby, in both words and pictures, and a lovely way to drift off to sleep.


Source: Review Copy

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