THE ROUGH-FACE GIRL

An Algonquin Cinderella story, with accomplished but sometimes overliteral illustrations. A powerful invisible being will marry the woman who can prove that she's seen him; a poor man's two proud daughters try and fail, but the third, her face and hands scarred from tending the fire, has the understanding to see him everywhere in the world and is lovingly received. Martin's retelling is spare and understated, but never dry; the two sisters are richly comic figures, the climax and ending uncontrived yet magically romantic. Shannon (who illustrated Lester's How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?) expertly picks up the flavor--the sisters positively strut through the village, their noses high and one wearing what looks like a spangled angora sweater--but the lips the Rough-Faced Girl sees hanging in the sky, or the muscular, art-deco cloud figure, seem intrusions rather than integral parts of the natural world. Still, a strong, distinctive tale with art to match.