Mitchell and Ibatoulline, after Andersen’s The Nightingale, adapt another of the Danish master’s tales. A soldier encounters an ugly witch who offers to enrich him for a favor—fetching a lost tinderbox from a lamp-lit hall inside a hollow tree. The soldier, following her instructions, tames three massive, huge-eyed dogs guarding coin-filled rooms. Arguing with the witch over the retrieved tinderbox, the soldier severs her head. In town, his fortunes wax and wane with his riches. Discovering that striking the tinderbox convenes the magical dogs to do his bidding, he crafts nighttime visits with a beautiful, cosseted princess, enraging her royal parents. The summoned dogs foil the soldier’s hanging, wreaking murderous mayhem that presages his marriage to the princess. There are no source notes, but Mitchell’s crisp retelling seems faithful to Haugaard’s translation, occasionally substituting less colloquial terms (eyes like dinner plates instead of millstones, for example). Ibatoulline’s muted watercolors, roiling with inked crosshatching, capture both period details and the curiously satisfying menace of the canine trio. Handsome and engrossing. (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-7636-2078-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2007
At ``Step 2'' in the useful ``Step into Reading'' series: an admirably clear, well-balanced presentation that centers on wolves' habits and pack structure. Milton also addresses their endangered status, as well as their place in fantasy, folklore, and the popular imagination. Attractive realistic watercolors on almost every page. Top-notch: concise, but remarkably extensive in its coverage. A real bargain. (Nonfiction/Easy reader. 6-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-679-91052-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
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