by Shirley Rousseau Murphy ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1999
PLB 0-06-024904-8 An exquisite story from Murphy (The Song of the Christmas Mouse, 1991, etc.) that has the air of myth about it, and which is intricately plotted visually by the Dillons. Resshie is the child of a mortal woman and the east wind, but she has been raised by an old woman and does not know her parentage. She learns to weave, and her cloth has the beauty of the wind in it. But there is no one “to share with her the world’s secrets,” so she tries to weave a husband, without success. She captures a wild hunter, but he pines for his freedom and she grants it. When a prince appears at her door, and all the wind stops before him, Resshie makes him a bargain he cannot refuse. In most spreads, boxed text appears on the left with a small pendant illustration, while a large framed image appears on the right. In the inner margins are mirror images of Lee Dillon’s extraordinary sculpted faces with windblown hair and veils. The rhythms of the text find precise resonance in the pictures, and if the wind indeed has colors, they are the hues of these scenes, from gossamer greens to shadowy heliotropes, silvery blues, and gilt-edged platinum. A picture book to be cherished. (Picture book. 4-9)
Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-024903-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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adapted by Charlotte Craft ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 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
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adapted by Lise Lunge-Larsen & Margi Preus ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 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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