#148 of 1001 · December 26, 2020

For a dark, otherworldly adventure with romance and heart, try Diane Wolkstein and Louisa Bauer’s The Glass Mountain. When the kind and gentle Jared arrives to ask for her hand in marriage, Princess Raina is so taken with him that she decides to help him scale the mountain of glass her father has built as a physical test for all would-be suitors. However, during the attempt, she falls through a crevasse and into an eldritch subterranean environment where a little man presses her into servitude until she outwits him and escapes. Wolkstein adapted this story from one of the lesser known tales by the Brothers Grimm, “Old Rinkrank” (named for the wicked underground cave-dweller). Her writing emphasizes Raina’s internal experience along the transformation from affluent monarch to disoriented prisoner to victorious survivor. Bauer’s watercolor and gouache illustrations inject the tale with a lively energy, filling each scene with jewel-bright colors and cool, crisp shadows. #glass #mountain #brothersgrimm #thebrothersgrimm #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks