Story of Rosy Dock

No, Rosy Dock is not someone you should know; apparently it's a pest, a non-native species of flower introduced more than a hundred years ago into Australia, where it's exuberance is threatening native species. (Can you say "scotsbroom" and "evergreen blackberries"?)
As an environmental message book, Jeannie Baker's prose is awkward at best; but the book is worth reading for the illustrations-amazing collage that draws you in to take a closer look at a beautiful, but troubled land.
Greenwillow Books, 1995

Matthew's Dragon

Forgettable.
I'm having trouble figuring out how the labored prose of this picture book could come from the same gifted mind that gave us the award-winning The Dark is Rising fantasy series.
Susan Cooper, illustrated by Jos. A. Smith. 1991

The Midnight Horse

So how can you put down a book that begins..."It was raining bullfrogs." You can't. And before long you meet a villain with "eyes as wet and baggy as live oysters!"
Does anyone write melodrama and tall tales better than Sid Fleischman? I doubt it. Winner of the Newbery Medal for The Whipping Boy, Sid and his son Paul are the only father/son pair to each win the coveted award.
Peter Sis's illustrations lend an appropriately eerie tone to The Midnight Horse.
(Note: The concluding chapter is inaptly titled "Black Magic". 84 pages. 1990.