TAM LIN

Another excellent presentation of the Scottish legend, quite different in flavor from the recent Yolen/Mikolaycak version (p. 1255/C-227), Cooper makes more of a feminist point of her heroine's independence, introducing "Margaret" as a rebel who remarks that she is "not a flower waiting to be picked. I would rather do my own picking"—a neat prediction of the act that will introduce her to her enchanted prince; she also omits religious references and makes Tam Lin's symbolic rebirth more explicit. Her nicely honed telling is brisk and witty; Yolen's is stately and poetic. And where Mikolaycak's characters have a brooding, statuesque nobility, Hutton's illustrations are lighter, more informal: his couple could be spotted in any high school, drawn poignantly together, intently plotting their escape from a higher power; misty and authentic, his moonlit Scottish landscapes feed the imgination. A rich comparison for readers lucky enough to see both.