Children, brave or otherwise, in search of classic stories have plenty of other choices.
Pretty illustrations accompany seven tales from Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Oscar Wilde, and other European writers.
Though all but Wilde’s “The Selfish Giant” do revolve around brave young people, the stories are significantly abridged and have been edited with a distinct lack of courage. They are so stripped of religious references, for instance, that the “Three Golden Hairs” are plucked from the chin of Hades rather than the devil, and Wilde’s giant is promised Paradise by a “child of love” with unmarked palms. On the other hand, “Vassilissa” still allows the flaming skull from Baba Yaga to burn her cruel stepfamily to death, and the stripped-down version of Andersen’s “The Wild Swans” actually improves on the original by switching out the walnut oil the evil stepmother uses in the original to transform Princess Elisa into a brown-skinned outcast for a generic “foul ointment” that just makes her unrecognizable. But Hades is the only member of Plumbe’s otherwise all-White cast with broad features and dark skin, and the artist’s tidy tableaux of stolid figures in medieval garb follow the overall lead of the stories by going for the safely bland. In the cursory author bios at the end Wilde is tagged as “controversial” without explanation, presumably embedded as a code word for adults with parochial values. But the attached ribbon bookmark is pretty.
Children, brave or otherwise, in search of classic stories have plenty of other choices. (Folk & fairy tales. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-78250-671-3
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
