#157 of 1001 · January 4, 2021

For today, a splendid visual feast: Dragon Feathers by husband-and-wife team Andrej Dugin and @duginart. In this adaptation of a folktale from Austria’s Ziller Valley, young Henry is obliged to pluck three golden feathers from a fearsome dragon sorcerer in order to win his sweetheart’s hand in marriage. Despite the peril of such a challenge, he gamely sets out on his journey. Along the way, he meets several strangers faced with difficulties and perplexing questions, whose answers the dragon’s good-natured wife wheedles out of the irascible lizard even as she plucks his feathers on Henry’s behalf. Dugin and Dugina structure their masterfully detailed oil paintings in a palindromic sequence, such that each illustration of Henry’s path to the dragon’s house is paired with a mirrored image charting his path back home: the first page with the last, the second page with the second to last, and so on, leading inward to the center of the book, where the dragon’s marital bed (very much the narrative and visual fulcrum of the tale) is evenly split across a single page spread. #dragon #feather #feathers #austria #magic #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