THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN

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)