There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Sun Bear and his books. Seen as a new age huckster by some, he was also seen as a visionary by others. He shared Native American spirituality when it was NOT cool to do it. He believed that it was time for all people, regardless of color, to work together to save themselves and Mother Earth.
This book is his story, and it is well worth the read, whether or not you agree with his ideas.

"Old Devil Wind" will get very young children in the mood for Halloween night by telling them what happened "One dark and stormy night" when a Ghost began to wail. One by one other things in the house, from the stool and the broom to the door and the floor, as well as the owl and the witch outside, begin to add their own spooky sounds to the dark and stormy night. You can think of this story by Bill Martin, Jr. (author of "Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and "Happy Hippopotami") as sort of a creepy Halloween version of "Old MacDonald." Barry Root ("Pumpkins") provides the suitably eerie illustrations chronicling the growling cacophony of eerie sounds that builds to the arrival of the Old Devil Wind at the climax. "Old Devil Wind" should work well for youngsters who can still count the number of times they have gone trick or treated on the fingers of one hand (without using the thumb).

Wonderful book for story time. Easy to involve children in the excitement of the book. Lots of opportunities to involve sounds while reading at a Halloween party.

Wind's text is the first to treat Velazquez's Sevillian pictures in depth, and has a great bibliography. His emphasis on the sources of Velazquez's inspiration depend too heavily on picaresque literature, in my belief, but otherwise the book is immensely useful, academically.