#152 of 1001 · December 30, 2020

Let’s amble through the far-off climes of John Warren Stewig and K. Wendy Popp’s Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes. Beckoned by the tale in the song of a bird outside her window, the daughter of a king and queen leaves the safety and comfort of her royal home and sets out in search of a prince lying in an enchanted slumber. She must traverse rough landscapes, listen for ethereal advice in the houses of the winds, and face a pair of fearsome gryphons, all while wearing out a pair of iron shoes. With pleasingly evocative language, Stewig adapts this tale with roots in the Spanish folk tradition; Popp’s smooth, hazy backgrounds contrast with her strikingly realistic character art to create an environment brimming with arcane allure. A note for folklore enthusiasts: many people with a limited breadth of experience seem to believe that that all fairy tales feature strong, clever men who drive the story and passive women who wait to be acted upon. These readers (and writers) therefore applaud revisionist versions of such stories in which the genders are changed but all other plot details remain the same. The vast majority of gender-swapped fairy tales come across as heavy-handed and artificial. Moreover, they are entirely unnecessary, as authentic tales in which a female character performs the rescue and a male character is seen as a figure of gentle beauty already exist, naturally rooted in the folk tradition that produced them. #princess #iron #shoes #prince #wind #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks