A retelling of the Chinese legend of the magic brocade, here set in 15th-century Europe, combined with elements from the Norwegian tale about the princess and the glass hill. It’s the story of three brothers and their mother, Anna, who weaves a magnificent tapestry that is subsequently stolen by the Fairies of the Crystal Mountain. When the first two sons fail to recover the tapestry, third and youngest Perrin succeeds at three impossible tasks that gain him passage to the palace. There, he rescues his mother’s tapestry with the help of the Red Fairy, who becomes his true love. Sanderson keeps the happily-ever-after ending intact, sparing the brothers the harsh punishment of the original version. The artist’s rendition of Anna’s ideal weaving mirrors the intricate unicorn tapestries of the Middle Ages, replete with endless paradisiacal gardens, lovely creatures, and pomegranate trees. Sanderson’s lush, detailed oil paintings are perfectly suited to the theater of fairy tale, where blood red bays may be summoned by a whistle’s trill, and heroes climb mountains of crystal to reach palaces inhabited by velvet-clothed princesses. (Picture book/folklore. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-77092-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
PLB 0-688-13166-2 King Midas And The Golden Touch ($16.00; PLB $15.63; Apr.; 32 pp.; 0-688-13165-4; PLB 0-688-13166-2): The familiar tale of King Midas gets the golden touch in the hands of Craft and Craft (Cupid and Psyche, 1996). The author takes her inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling, capturing the essence of the tale with the use of pithy dialogue and colorful description. Enchanting in their own right, the illustrations summon the Middle Ages as a setting, and incorporate colors so lavish that when they are lost to the uniform gold spurred by King Midas’s touch, the point of the story is further burnished. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13165-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Lunge-Larsen and Preus debut with this story of a flower that blooms for the first time to commemorate the uncommon courage of a girl who saves her people from illness. The girl, an Ojibwe of the northern woodlands, knows she must journey to the next village to get the healing herb, mash-ki- ki, for her people, who have all fallen ill. After lining her moccasins with rabbit fur, she braves a raging snowstorm and crosses a dark frozen lake to reach the village. Then, rather than wait for morning, she sets out for home while the villagers sleep. When she loses her moccasins in the deep snow, her bare feet are cut by icy shards, and bleed with every step until she reaches her home. The next spring beautiful lady slippers bloom from the place where her moccasins were lost, and from every spot her injured feet touched. Drawing on Ojibwe sources, the authors of this fluid retelling have peppered the tale with native words and have used traditional elements, e.g., giving voice to the forces of nature. The accompanying watercolors, with flowing lines, jewel tones, and decorative motifs, give stately credence to the story’s iconic aspects. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-90512-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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