Another original fairy tale from the apparently bottomless imagination of Yolen (Here There Be Unicorns, p. 1546, etc.). This is the slightly convoluted story of an enchanted castle—wherein lives a terrifying beast—and the nearby woodsman's cottage. The woodsman lives with his frail wife of mysterious origins and their little daughter, Aurea. A sorceress comes and poses as a cook offering her services in exchange for room and board, but she is really looking for a charm she believes to be in the woodsman's possession. Unable to find it, she disposes of the man and his wife and tries to do away with Aurea as well, but she's foiled by the animals whom the girl has befriended. The charm is the comb that Aurea's mother gave to her on her deathbed. When the beast comes to the forest, the girl combs his mane with it and braids some of her own golden hair into his—and he becomes a man, the long-lost king and Aurea's grandfather. The sorceress is changed into a bird and chained by the wickedness in her own heart. Yolen's language is lovely as usual, but there are too many fairy-tale conventions mashed into this one story. Dyer's illustrations, however, are enchanting. (Fiction/Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-316-96894-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
A marketing trip from Miranda (Glad Monster, Sad Monster, p. 1309) that jiggity jigs off in time-honored nursery-rhyme fashion, but almost immediately derails into well-charted chaos. The foodstuffs—the fat pig, the red hen, the plump goose, the pea pods, peppers, garlic, and spice—are wholly reasonable in light of the author's mention of shopping at traditional Spanish mercados, which stock live animals and vegetables. Stevens transfers the action to a standard American supermarket and a standard American kitchen, bringing hilarity to scenes that combine acrylics, oil pastels, and colored pencil with photo and fabric collage elements. The result is increasing frazzlement for the shopper, an older woman wearing spectacles, hat, and purple pumps (one of which is consumed by her groceries). It's back to market one last time for ingredients for the hot vegetable soup she prepares for the whole bunch. True, her kitchen's trashed and she probably won't find a welcome mat at her supermarket hereafter, but all's well that ends well—at least while the soup's on. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-200035-6
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1997
The can’t-miss subject of this Step into Reading series entry—a unicorn with a magic horn who also longs for wings—trumps its text, which is dry even by easy-reader standards. A boy unicorn, whose horn has healing powers, reveals his wish to a butterfly in a castle garden, a bluebird in the forest and a snowy white swan in a pond. Falling asleep at the edge of the sea, the unicorn is visited by a winged white mare. He heals her broken wing and she flies away. After sadly invoking his wish once more, he sees his reflection: “He had big white wings!” He flies off after the mare, because he “wanted to say, ‘Thank you.’ ” Perfectly suiting this confection, Silin-Palmer’s pictures teem with the mass market–fueled iconography of what little girls are (ostensibly) made of: rainbows, flowers, twinkly stars and, of course, manes down to there. (Easy reader. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83117-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
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