THE SEVEN RAVENS

A young girl learns she had seven brothers who had been cursed and banished by their father for being inconsiderate to her when she was a frail babe. Now they are just seven more ravens scratching a living in the far North. When the father comes to rue his curse, finding nothing but sorrow in his life, the girl takes the hint and embarks on a quest to find the lads and set things right. To do so, she must endure a long and hazardous journey, joust with the sun, tousle with the moon, and ride the stars to the Glass Mountain. Geringer (Look Out, Look Out, It's Coming, 1992, etc.) has tinkered mightily in this retelling, foregoing the surrealistic horrors of the Brothers Grimm (who have the girl lopping off a finger to gain entry to the mountain, evidently a shade too nasty for Geringer) to concentrate on the girl's emotional trauma, erasing all the pungent Grimmness. Gazsi's strange fusion of illustrational styles—R. Crumb taking vows with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood—are what grab the reader. They are lush and bold and decidedly entertaining, although discontinuities with the text are annoying. The psycho-baggage gets in the way of the story, but Gazsi's pictures captivate. (Folklore/Picture book. 5-9)