#266 of 1001 · April 23, 2021

This next Puss in Boots, written by Joy Cowley and illustrated by Sam-hyeon Kim, takes a light and playful approach to the material. Cowley cultivates an economy of language, keeping her sentences compact and effective. The title “Marquis of Carabas” is here given as “Lord Carabas”, while the traditional ogre is now a giant. The references to violence in the original text are toned down or omitted, with the Puss’s threat to grind peasants into sausage meat changed to a warning that he will bite or scratch them; the young man’s thought to eat his cat and make a muff of the hide is nowhere to be found. Kim’s quirky sensibility infuses each page with an charming energy, from the young man’s listless body language to the giant’s oversized head and hookah. Fascinatingly, this particular book appears to have been originally published in Korean, with Cowley’s English-language text for the American edition replacing (as opposed to translating) the work of original author Gyeong-hwa Kim. #cat #boots #fairytale #folklore #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #classicchildrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks