#367 of 1001 · August 2, 2021

Today is the first anniversary of my first book review! In celebration, I’m returning to the same illustrator I featured in that inaugural post. Here is The Water of Life, an adaptation of a Brothers Grimm tale by Barbara Rogasky and Trina Schart Hyman. The three sons of a dying king learn that their father can only be cured by the legendary Water of Life. The first prince speaks rudely to a dwarf he encounters in the road and soon finds himself and his horse wedged in a narrow, rocky crevice. The second prince fares no better and suffers the same fate. The third treats the dwarf with kindness and receives crucial advice that allows him to retrieve the Water of Life from the courtyard of an ethereal castle. However, when his two brothers betray him and take credit for his heroism, the youngest prince is obliged to flee. Only when outside proof of his goodness arrives in his father’s court can he return and reclaim his just reward. Rogasky faithfully renders the Grimms’ text in artful and compelling prose. Hyman’s masterful, richly-colored illustrations convey the characters’ deep emotions through lifelike facial expressions and evocative body language. Among other bewitching details, note the cadre of enchanted princes sitting around the table in the mysterious castle’s grand hall: some feature bizarre appendages growing from their body (one has leafy branches on his head, one has grown deer antlers, one has sprouted a unicorn horn, one has iridescent butterfly wings) while others have been partially transformed into animals (one has the head of a blue jay, one the head of a swan, one the head of a frog). #water #life #king #prince #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks