#856 of 1001 · December 4, 2022

Another Theme Week is now underway—and this time I’ll be exploring seven different versions of Snow White! First up, an adaptation written and illustrated by Charles Santore. The plot remains scrupulously faithful to its fairy-tale origins, from the queen’s three attempts to kill Snow White to her ultimate fate dancing herself to death at the young princess’s wedding. Santore fills his art with resplendent imagery, including a wealth of period-appropriate renaissance costumes and decor. A note for folklore enthusiasts: “Sneewittchen”, or “Little Snow-White”, first appeared in Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm’s collection Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812. In the original edition of the tale, the murderous queen is in fact Snow White’s mother. However, in later versions, the Grimms altered the text, with the first queen dying and the king remarrying. Santore inserts a few changes of his own—the huntsman here brings back an animal’s heart as proof that he has carried out her execution (in the fairy tale the queen demands her lungs and liver) and the dancing shoes kill the queen with magic (in the original tale, they are made of iron and heated in a fire before they are forced onto the queen’s feet). #snow #white #snowwhite #queen #mirror #poison #apple #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks