Dear Mili: An Old Tale [Hardcover]

Wilhelm Grimm (Author), Maurice Sendak (Illustrator), Ralph Manheim (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1988 | Age Level: 5 and up

A newly discovered tale by Wilhelm Grimm about a little girl who is sent into the forest by her mother to escape the war. While there, she is cared for by Saint Joseph and her guardian angel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Preserved in a letter written to a young girl, Mili, in 1816 and not discovered until 1983, the Grimm story is prefaced by a tender address in which he underscores the story's message: although there are many obstacles that can prevent people from being together, "one human heart can go out to another, undeterred by what lies between." The story that follows implies that love transcends even death. Like many fairy tales, this one deals with extraordinary events. A widow sends her child into the forest to protect her from an approaching war. The girl is led by her guardian angel past menacing cliffs and chasms to the house of Saint Joseph with whom she lives for three days. Before she goes back to the village, Saint Joseph gives her a rosebud as a symbol of her return to paradise; when the girl reaches her home, she finds that the three days have been in reality 30 years. "God has granted the widow's last wish" to see her daughter once again. In the morning, mother and child are found dead, with Saint Joseph's rose "in full bloom." Sendak's haunting interpretation of this stark tale is often more emotionally compelling than the story itself. Dear Mili is a variation on the themes of loss, separation and love that Sendak has explored before, most recently in Outside Over There . In the tradition of 19th century Sunday school literature, the plot and language of the text are often predictable and obviously preachy. For example, after Mili's long journey and prayer, a cleansing rain falls: "God and my heart are weeping together," she says. In an attempt to transcend the limitations of the religious story, Sendak infuses it with images that are both nonsectarian and universal. Trees and roots in the valley of death become grasping, whitened bones scattered beneath an outline reminiscent of buildings at Auschwitz. The images are rich: dark clouds of war are etched with claws of yellow fire, and paradise is filled not only with music, but with lush flowers that burst, like those of Van Gogh or O'Keeffe, with passionate life. The volume may have more appeal for adults than for children, but nonetheless it contains unforgettable artwork of resonant power. Michael di Capua Books. All ages.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3 This is a problematic book: a potent combination of compelling pictures and a seriously disturbing text. Although the discovery of the tale in 1983 made front-page news, there is little novelty or originality to it. The story, found in a letter of 1816, is a pastiche of several ``religious tales.'' When war approaches, a widowed mother sends her beloved little daughter, protected by a guardian angel, into the forest, trusting God to bring her back in three days. The intrepid girl encounters St. Joseph, dutifully does what she is bid, shares her cake, and plays with the angel (now a doppel-ganger ). On the third day the angel-double leads her home, where she finds an ``old, old woman''her mother. In those 3 days, 30 years have passed, and the mother has suffered fear and misery during a great war, while mourning the daughter whom she believed dead. Mother and child happily spend the evening together, go to bedand are found dead in the morning. Separation, fear, violence, and even death are familiar elements in Grimms' tales: what is unsettling here is the treatment, the unanticipated mixture of fairy tale, realism, and religion. Our firm expectationsthat the child will be safeguarded by her mother's love, by God's Providence, and by her own staunch goodnessare brutally undermined by the ending. Publishing this pious parable as a picture book for children in 1988 makes W. Grimm look like a macabre forerunner of O. Henry. The pictures only compound the problem. Stunningly beautiful, in Sendak's elaborate neo-19th-Century style, packed with ``high art'' touches, their Romantic grace, cozy cottages, and abundant flowers all reinforce our feelings of security. Although the story hints strongly that when the heroine finds St. Joseph she is actually in Heaven, the setting offers no clarification on this point. The gorgeous art and the names Sendak and Grimm guarantee that this book will be requested. Warned by librarians and booksellers, parents might at least choose to modify or omit the last few lines at bedtime readings. Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (J); 1st edition (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374317623
• ISBN-13: 978-0374317621
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,404,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL!, May 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dear Mili (Paperback)

I am 13 years old, but I still love this book like I did when I read it when I was 4 years old. It was one of the saddest, yet sweetest books I've ever read. I cry at the end when mother and daughter are reunited and I weep at the daughter's innocence.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Grimm Shoah, September 23, 2003

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear Mili: An Old Tale (Hardcover)

Dear Mili was a surprise in many ways. While Maurice Sendak has never failed to amaze, this tender rendering a newly discovered fairy tale set as a metaphor of children hidden in the holocaust is one of the most beautiful experiences a reader can have. This is my favorite children's book of all time: the artwork is I believe the peak of Sendak's career. A small girl living alone with her mother is sent for safety in the forest when a terrible foreboding threatens. In the forest she meets St. Joseph, and another small one, who keep her safe. Returning after a pleasant journey, she finds her mother aged and alone.
Their is joy and reunion: this is a poignant story on many levels. Looking deeply at the artwork one will see shoah themes:
Sendak in premiere Jewish sensitivity has done a remarkable thing: taken ancient Grimm Catholic legend and woven it into a metaphor for all of us, for all time. If this book does not tender the heart of the older who read to the younger, they have no heart. Absolutely 5-stars: Should be a classic and not out of print.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lost and found treasure!, December 29, 2002

By 

J. Gu (NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dear Mili (Paperback)

It took me a while to recover after reading the story. True words are plain and simple. A short story, yet so powerful, just as I thought I've known it all, it makes me think hard about life from a whole new perspective. "Thus does my heart go out to you...", they may be long gone, but it feels like they are still talking to me.
A lost tale found after 150 years and I am so glad that I have found you.