Les nains

by Bernadette Watts (Illustrator), Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm

A favorite tale for generations, this story of the triumph of simple kindness over evil finds perfect interpretation in the majestic paintings of Gennady Spirin, whose "palette is deep and subtle, overlaid with a smoky haze of warm gold that heightens the timeless quality of the tale" ("School Library Journal").

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, Bernadette Watts generally and nicely faithfully (but also never awkwardly with regard to her translation from German to English) follows Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm's Märchen (folktale) Schneewittchen for her 1983 picture book Snow White and which has also been rereleased in 1988 and most recently in 2018 (with the text for Snow White obviously being from the 1857 edition of the Brothers Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen, since in the 1812 edition, for Scheewittchen, the evilly jealous queen is Snow White's biological mother and not as is the case in the 1857 edition Snow White's stepmother). But even though I have never found Schneewittchen a personal favourite (and actually not so much if at all because of the evil stepmother scenario, but more because Snow White is both annoyingly inactive and also rather frustratingly ditzy so to speak, as she lets herself be duped and "killed" three times by the scheming queen and totally does not listen to the advice of the seven dwarves with whom she is sheltering regarding not talking to strangers and to also be on the look-out for danger from her stepmother), I do think that the combination of Bernadette Watts' retelling and her accompanying images work really well together in Snow White and provide a more than decent and in many ways in fact verbally and pictorially enchanting picture book experience.

And indeed, my only mild textual issues regarding Snow White are for one that I do although with a slight amount of guilt kind of prefer the ending in Schneewittchen, where the evil stepmother, where the horrid queen at the resurrected and glowingly radiantly alive Snow White's nuptials with the prince is made to wear burning shoes of iron and has to dance until she dies, as well, it is at least for me personally a bit boring and ridiculous that in Snow White Bernadette Watts has the evil queen simply have her heart stop because of her jealously and her rage, and for two, although I no longer expect supplemental folkloric details being provided by Watts for her fairy tale retellings, it still does bother me that Snow White has no supplemental folkloric information being offered and that even the 2018 republication of Snow White includes only very basic and also a touch misleading information on Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm on the side flaps of the dust jacket (since the brothers did not as is being claimed collect their folktales from local peasants and villagers but received these mostly from their educated and as such also well-read friends and acquaintances).

Finally, with regard to Bernadette Watts' artwork for Snow White, her pictures are colourfully descriptive and also do a very good job mirroring and reflecting the (or rather her) retelling of Scheewittchen, and with me especially appreciating that Snow White's nemesis, that the nasty stepmother looks depraved but without appearing physically ugly (and indeed, even when the ragingly jealous queen disguises herself to appear old and decrepit in order to dupe and trick Snow White) and that Snow White is illustrated by Watts as looking beautiful but also with rather naive and stunned facial features (and which definitely and successfully reflects the thematics of Snow White).

[Connie]

A few things that may scare K-2:
Queen wants heart and lungs of Snow White, huntsman kills boar and uses those organs instead
This telling includes queen using corset, poison comb and finally poison apple to kill Snow White.
Tone of story and language used is very K-2 friendly and will make nice read aloud, especially due to beautiful large prints depicting forest, Snow White and dwarves.

[— nova · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm not trying to victim blame, but maybe natural selection was trying to take snow white out