#612 of 1001 · April 4, 2022

Come and enjoy yourself by flipping through The Queen Bee, a Brothers Grimm tale translated into English by Elizabeth James and illustrated by Iassen Ghiuselev. Two princes decide to abandon their desire for adventure and lead a wanton, unruly life. Their younger brother, saddled with the rude nickname Dimwit, seeks them out and joins them on their travels. He stops his cruel older siblings from destroying an anthill for pleasure, catching ducks to roast, and smoking bees out of a hive for the honey. When the three arrive at an enchanted castle, they are challenged to complete three tasks in order to break the spell. The two older brothers are soon turned to stone, but Dimwit succeeds with the help of the animals to whom he showed kindness: the ants help gather scattered crystals, the ducks retrieve a key from the bottom of a deep lake, and the queen bee herself distinguishes a princess from her sisters by sniffing out the honey on her lips from a bedtime snack. James’s adaptation is well served by the medieval period details of Ghiuselev’s smooth-textured art. A note for folklore enthusiasts: in the original text from Grimm, the youngest brother is set apart from the others not by a perceived lack of intelligence but by dwarfism. #queen #bee #queenbee #ant #ants #duck #ducks #bees #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks