SIX SWANS

Both the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Andersen tell the ancient tale of the sister who rescued her brothers, turned into swans by a wicked stepmother. San José retells it in a softened and sentimentalized version in the voice of the girl herself, who must be silent for six years while she makes shirts from a fragile flower to return her brothers to human form. They each have personalities but not names—she refers to them as Oldest Brother, and so on—and what happens to the sister-in-law who has actually stolen the child of the girl and the prince is not described. Cole’s acrylic paintings are problematic too: While some lovely patterns appear on garments and backgrounds, the colors are garishly bright and the faces are not individualized. Try the lovely version of Ken Setterington’s The Wild Swans (2003) instead. (Picture book/folktale. 7-9)