#154 of 1001 · January 1, 2021

It is New Year’s Day. A time to celebrate new beginnings, to look ahead with hope for the future even as we maintain our joyful traditions. In recognition of the cyclical symbolism of the holiday, I am going all the way back to where I started and featuring the illustrator from my very first book review: this is Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges and Trina Schart Hyman. George, a valiant warrior known as the Red Cross Knight, journeys to a faraway land at the behest of the Queen of the Fairies to slay a fearsome dragon. Man and beast clash over and over on the battlefield, locked in a deadly struggle until the monster falls at last. Hodges employs sophisticated language and elegant imagery to create a tale of remarkable action and excitement. Hyman’s stunning art is divided into panels by crisscrossing brown strips resembling muntins, which also (on pages facing the illustrations) serve to frame the text in heraldic borders. The standout creation here is of course the glorious and ferociously beautiful dragon, its hide covered in thickly scaled armor, its membranous wings studded with hooked pinions, its flame breath choking the sky with billowing clouds of smoke. I wish you a joyful and prosperous New Year. A note for folklore enthusiasts: the medieval Christian legend of Saint George and the Dragon can be found in many sources, notably Legenda Aurea (“The Golden Legend”), a collection of hagiographies by thirteenth-century Genoese archbishop Jacobus de Varagine. Hodges adapts her text from Edmund Spenser’s expansion of the tale in his sixteenth-century epic poem The Faerie Queene. #trinascharthyman #saintgeorge #stgeorge #dragon #knight #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