#425 of 1001 · September 29, 2021

Here we lie at the center of Sleeping Beauty Week, and for your enjoyment I’ve got a sumptuous adaptation written by husband-and-wife team Mahlon F. and Kinuko Y. Craft. Both text and illustrations shine with a stately elegance. Mahlon Craft’s language captures the charm, grandeur, and wonder of the antique fairy tale setting. Kinuko Craft’s marvelous paintings, achieved through an application of oil over watercolor on illustration board, glow with jewel-bright color; of particular note is her depiction of the wicked fairy, who appears in the grand palace hall as a menacing, smoke-black wraith and advances on the king and queen like an unholy storm cloud. A note for folklore enthusiasts: the source of this book’s text is identifiably the Brothers Grimm, based on the frog foretelling the queen’s pregnancy and the thirteen fairies. However, several elements signal the influence of the Tchaikovsky ballet. The old spinning woman is explicitly identified as the wicked fairy lying in wait to ensnare the princess, a dramatic beat first used by Tchaikovsky. Moreover, the princess herself is called Aurora, a name not found in any version of the tale prior to Tchaikovsky—except in Charles Perrault’s 1697 text in which Aurora is the name the princess gives to the daughter born to her after she awakens from her slumber. #sleepingbeauty #sleeping #beauty #fairy #fairies #queen #king #princess #prince #book #books #childrensbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks