#169 of 1001 · January 16, 2021

A marvelous adaptation of a Greek myth tinged with grandeur and pathos is Jane Yolen and Dennis Nolan’s Wings, which recounts the life of the famed architect, sculptor, and inventor Daedalus, from his roots as an Athenian prince to his construction of a labyrinth to house the Minotaur on Crete to his imprisonment in a high tower and disastrous escape attempt by air with his son Icarus. Author and illustrator work together to emulate the structure of classical drama within the picture book medium: in her masterful retelling, Yolen includes periodic one-line descriptions of the reactions of the gods to each development in Daedalus’s journey (as if spoken by a Greek chorus), and Nolan, his sweeping watercolor paintings, cleverly translates these interludes into depictions of the Olympian deities as celestial cloud beings with recognizably human emotions on full display as they bear silent witness to the tale. #wings #daedalus #icarus #greek #greekmyth #greekmyths #greekmythology #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks