#495 of 1001 · December 8, 2021

Twelve Dancing Princesses Week is half over, and today I present you with Dorothée Duntze’s pleasingly quirky version. The writing remains thoroughly faithful to the original text of the Brothers Grimm, right down to the old soldier’s appropriate choice of the firstborn princess as his bride. The illustrations sport an eclectic assortment of ethnic influences on the fashion, decor, and architecture, finishing with the utterly bizarre visual of the royal garden party held on an enormous high-heeled shoe. A note for folklore enthusiasts: Duntze includes the Grimms’ mysterious clues about the nature of the magic at work in the story: the eldest princess’s comment that they will soon have disenchanted the twelve princes, and the ending detail of the princes having the length of their curse extended for as many days as they had danced with the princesses. These tantalizing (and perhaps contradictory) asides leave the reader to puzzle out the origin and precise rules of the arcane spell. #dancing #princesses #mystery #magic #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