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CM . . .
. Volume X Number 18 . . . . May 7, 2004
excerpt:
Verónica Uribe is a Latin American author and editor who is fascinated by fairy tales and their many variants. In this handsome volume, she retells twelve tales: Little Red Riding Hood; Puss-in-Boots; Sleeping Beauty; Rumpelstiltskin; Rapunzel; The Peasant’s Clever Daughter; Snow White; The Seven Ravens; The Frog Prince; The Three Feathers; and Bearskin. The text has been translated from the original Spanish edition, and it flows elegantly and smoothly. The tales are fascinating on their own and also because of the notes at the end of the book. In the notes, which would be of interest to adults, Uribe answers a variety of interesting questions like why she chose to retell a particular version or how the version is different in Perrault or Grimm or what contemporary writers like Bettelheim or Zipes think is the real meaning of the tale. For example, she explains that in the Grimm tale of Cinderella her shoe is made of gold, but in the Perrault version it is made of glass. Since the Perrault version of Cinderella is so refined, she chose to retell it rather than the rather gruesome Grimm version with the stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to fit the shoe! Then she mentions that Bruno Bettelheim thinks that Cinderella is a fairy tale which reflects like few others a classic case of sibling rivalry. When you read the tale and then the notes, you can’t help turning back the pages to reread the tale!
The book is very attractive especially with the chevron end papers which echo the designs on the title headings and spine. The illustrations have been done by Murkasek in Photoshop and Painter by manipulating photographs, drawings and household objects. The colour is intensely saturated in the images, and they have the same sense of hyper realism as David McKean’s recent digital montages for Neil Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Walls (HarperCollins, 2002). This little book will be a big hit with fairytale fans and should be on the shelves of folklore collections in libraries. Highly Recommended. Lorraine, of Winnipeg, MB, is a Board Member of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
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But parents will just enjoy reading these tales to their children. The book is in the same series as the previous publication, Little Book of Latin American Folktales, and the Little Book of Fables is forthcoming. The size is just perfect for holding in small hands, and readers will enjoy the old favourites as well as several lesser known tales. Children who are just starting reading on their own may find the upper case display font difficult, and the lower case sans serif font is very small.