#108 of 1001 · November 16, 2020

Today I’m poring over this endlessly fascinating version of The Frog Prince or Iron Henry, translated from the German of the Brothers Grimm by Naomi Lewis and illustrated by Binette Schroeder. Lewis strikes a satisfying tone through her majestic narrative voice, while Schroeder’s eerily captivating illustrations frequently employ the clever technique of depicting action by staging a character in a sequence of poses within a single environment. A note for folklore enthusiasts: the Brothers Grimm originally titled this tale “Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich”, which translates to “The Frog King or Iron Heinrich”. Fascinatingly, in the first edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen, the Grimms included a similar tale called “Der Froschprinz” (“The Frog Prince”). In his 1823 English-language edition (the first-ever translation of the Grimms’ fairy tales into English), Edgar Taylor kept “Der Froschkönig” but replaced its ending with that of “Der Froschprinz”, and combined the names of the stories, yielding the commonly used title that Lewis has selected for this adaptation. #binetteschroeder #naomilewis #thefrogprince #frogprince #frogking #brothersgrimm #thebrothersgrimm #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks