MORE 'FOLK-AND-FAIRY-TALE-REVIEWS' POSTS
Hansel and Gretel By Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti Candlewick $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-935179-62-7 Ages 6 and up When a successful writer of books for adults decides to traipse headlong into the world of children’s literature, the results are too often disastrous. From Donald Barthelme’s self-indulgent Slightly Irregular Fire Engine to the more recent, if […]
The Fox and the Crow By Manasi Subramaniam Illustrated by Culpeo S. Fox Karadi Tales $17.95 ISBN: 978-81-8190-303-7 Ages 4 and up On shelves now In the classic Aesop fable of The Fox and the Crow where do your loyalties lie? You remember the tale, don’t you? Long story short (or, rather, short story shorter) […]
Aesop in California By Doug Hansen Heyday $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-59714-235-9 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. Gather round me, o ye little children, and hear the tale I tell. Of a time when fairytales and folktales were as ripe and plentiful as the grapes of summer. When you could walk into any bookstore or library and […]
Starry River of the Sky By Grace Lin Little, Brown and Company $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-316-12595-6 Ages 9-12 On shelves October 2, 2012 I remember when Grace Lin first started writing chapter books for kids. She’d been doing picture books (mostly for others) for years and when at last she started creating small semi-fictionalized memoirs based […]
The Princess and the Pig By Jonathan Emmett Illustrated by Poly Bernatene Walker & Co. (a division of Bloomsbury) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-8027-2334-5 Ages 4-8 On shelves now The princess craze is a relatively new phenomenon. I’m sure that little girls have pretended to be princesses for as long as the occupation has existed, but the […]
Never Forgotten By Patricia C. McKissack Illustrated by Leon and Diane Dillon Schwartz & Wade $18.99 ISBN: 978-0-375-84384-6 Ages 4 and up On shelves October 11, 2011 The more I read children’s literature the more I come to realize that my favorite books for kids are the ones that can take disparate facts, elements, and […]
Pea Boy and Other Stories from Iran By Elizabeth Laird Illustrated by Shirin Adl Frances Lincoln Children’s Books $22.95 ISBN: 978-1-84507-912-3 Ages 5 and up. On shelves now. I love my job. You would too if you were me. I work in the main branch of New York Public Library in the most beautiful children’s […]
I think the lesson of the day here is that I haven’t been giving Lucy Cousins enough credit. While you may not be immediately familiar with her name, you've probably run into Cousins's most famous creation, Maisy, at some point in your travels. Maisy is a mouse. Maisy is cute. Maisy is beloved by the 0-4 set. You haven't lived until you've worked a reference desk where desperate two-year-olds come up to you like knee high zombies demanding, in their too high voices, your entire section of Maisy-related literature. Now because Maisy is so cute and non-threatening I was not initially impressed when I first heard about Yummy. Ms. Cousins wants to try her hand at fairy tales? Fine. It’ll probably be something along the lines of that Mary Engelbreit Nursery Tales collection. An early child introduction to fairy tales but without any of the original violent aspects. A watered down version, I’m sure. Well slap me upside the head and call me Charlie because I could not have been more wrong. Yummy is, if anything, the veritable antithesis to Engelbreit. With a good-natured, downright jovial tone of voice, Lucy Cousins takes old-fashioned stories and makes them as gruesome and funny as she is able.
The McElderry Book of Greek Myths Retold by Eric A. Kimmel Illustrated by Pep Montserrat Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster imprint) $21.99 ISBN: 1-4169-1534-6 Ages 5-12 On shelves now How do your average everyday children’s book illustrators go about proving themselves in this day and age? Well, I don’t know what they teach […]
The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm By Laura Amy Schlitz Illustrated by Max Grafe Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 9780763627300 Ages 7-12 One shelves now For the reviewer that reviews for pleasure, every book that sits on your lap has to prove itself to some extent. Even the world’s shortest picture book is an […]