Using multiple narrators, Pattou expands the Scandinavian folktale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” to epic length—adding little to the original. A white bear appears at a poor Norwegian farmer’s door, promising a reversal of the family’s fortunes in exchange for worrisomely fearless Rose. Away goes Rose on the bear’s back, to a subterranean palace in “Fransk” where, eventually, she learns that the bear is an enchanted human prince. When he’s swept off by a troll queen who’s fallen in love with him, Rose, aided by a drunken sea captain, an Inuit shaman, and others, travels to the Arctic’s far reaches to confront her, whereupon she conveniently destroys herself, leaving Rose and the bewildered prince free to settle into a happily-ever-after. Rose is a sturdy character inside and out, some in the supporting cast show engaging foibles, and the pace does pick up in the second half—but only fitfully does this achieve the intensity of feeling or vividness of setting that drives the best of the recent flurry of retold romances. (glossary) (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-204563-5
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Around The World In Eighty Days ($23.99; $15.99 paper; May 1996; 296 pp.; 0- 670-86917-1; paper 0-670-86793-4): An entry in The Whole Story series, this is an annotated edition of the 1873 classic, printed on coated stock and enhanced by both atmospheric new paintings and hundreds of postage-stampsized 19th-century photos and prints. The explanatory captions (credited to Jean-Pierre Verdet only on the copyright page) accompanying the latter are largely superfluous, although they do add random snippets of historical background to the journey. It's the views of old ships and trains, of costumed natives, and distant ports of call—from Port Said to San Francisco—that evoke the tale's panorama of the exotic, just as the many lurid Verne trading cards and other spinoffs capture the plot's melodramatic highlights. A good way to put both book and story in context for young armchair travelers. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-670-86917-1
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1996
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