Deep down beneath the couch cushions, past the crumbs and pocket lint, lying in wait for loose change, lurks…Margarash! Mark Riddle’s titular character is a boogieman turned buddy in this sweet, silly, and just scary-enough picture book that follows Collin, a young coin collector, into the couch crack netherworld where Margarash lives.
Collin is your average coin-loving kid, the kind who collects, counts, and arranges his coins “by size or shape, country or state, even by smell or taste (which is something you should never do).” The monster, like Collin, hoards coins. When Collin, in his continuous quest to expand his collection, starts infringing on Margarash’s territory, the monster takes him prisoner, chanting a post-capture warning to the boy and to readers: “The coins that fall are for Margarash, / Margarash, Margarash, / The coins that fall are for Margarash, / Leave them where they lie.”
Margarash puts a clever, modern twist on a classic folktale storyline. Tim Miller’s illustrations take the edge off of the more frightening parts of the book and bring subtle beauty and depth to Margarash’s dark world, lit by beams and points of light that fall, like the coins he craves, through the cracks and tears of couches everywhere.
Margarash
by Mark Riddle, Tim Miller (Illustrator)
Enchanted Lion Books
2016, 48 pages, 8.8 x 0.5 x 12.1 inches, Hardcover
$14 Buy one on Amazon
