Although popular culture's take on fairy tales tends to emphasize the bright side of life, Goloshapov's illustrations for this old story retain its darker aspects and fairly bristle with menace. His palette is as brown as mud in pictures filled with eccentric figures straight out of the hell of Hieronymus Bosch. Nothing in the text of Bell's translation foretells such darkness; it may be her matter-of-fact narrative that, by contrast, highlights the intrigue of the pictures. The six servants of the title, who help a prince win the hand of a princess by performing impossible tasks, are true grotesques, sculpted from withering landscapes accented with insects. Only on the final page does the art show some color, and even then, although the newlyweds' clothing is bright, the background is black and the wedding guests repulsive. As with a good ghost story, the horror here is the enticement. (Picture book/folklore. 6-10)
