SNOW WHITE & OTHER STORIES

This is the second lot of books giving American children a chance to see the work of European illustrators, handling familiar material. See P. 436 for the reports on the French series, including Cinderella, Snow White and La Fontaine. Maraja, one of the Italian artists selected, has done an admirable interpretation of Pinocchio, which is as it should be, but is less successful with Hans Andersen and Alice in Wonderland.....It seems unfortunate that Grimms' Fairy Tales should have been selected a second time, and I personally, like the J.L. Huen illustrations better, with their; rich, strange echoes...than I do the Nardini illustrations; which seem in contrast rather bland.... Benvenuti was, however, the greatest disappointment. His illustrations for The Sleeping Beauty have a stock poster quality that misses the magic tale. And his Tales from the Arabian Nights seems more Chinese than Arabian. Compared with Tenggren's rich, imaginative pictures for the much more inclusive Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights. Benvenuti gives one a sense of letdown (see p. 741)....Miss Goulden has managed, in her retelling, to keep the essential story thread and quality of the telling in each of her texts. One could wish she had been better served by the illustrators....And- a warning here- the bindings seem too fragile for our American climate, and are already warped. What they will look like after handling by small hands, I hate to guess. Perhaps these are books for the closed and supervised shelves.