Snowbear Whittington: An Appalachian Beauty and the Beast [Hardcover]

William H. Hooks (Author), Victoria Lisi (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up

A retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set against the backdrop of the Smoky Mountains, follows the story of Nell, a beautiful and industrious young woman captured by a huge beast, who is really a bewitched young man forced to live half his time as an animal.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Snowbear Whittington is the traditional "Beauty and the Beast" tale retold with slight Appalachian mountain variations, including a large white bear instead of a "beast" and Christmas roses for the plucked flower that starts off the chain of events. Lisi has added such regional trappings as quilts, dulcimers, homespun clothing, and baskets. Endpapers capture the blue beauty of the mountains first in winter and then in spring. The straightforward text appears in a free-verse format on double pages, which alternate with double-spread paintings. The illustrator has chosen a romanticized, realistic style that features beautiful people, with bear motifs, Christmas roses, and doves used symbolically. The animals are realistically rendered and believable while the human characters have vacant expressions that detract from their appeal. Libraries that already own Marianna Mayer's (Macmillan, 1984) or Michael Hague's (Holt, 1991) romantic versions of Beauty and the Beast may consider this one an additional purchase.
Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 6-9. This picture book for older readers is sometimes reminiscent of the often-rendered story "East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon." In the Great Smoky Mountains, a father picking Christmas roses for his youngest daughter, Nell, runs afoul of a large white bear. To save her father, Nell agrees to travel to the bear's castle, where she discovers that her host, Snowbear Whittington, is really a handsome young man under a witch's spell. Lisi's watercolors have a classic fairy-tale feel to them, but the figures, though technically well rendered, seem posed and stiff, and the faces (especially Nell's) lack expression. Hooks' retelling, however, is handled nicely enough to lend itself to both storytelling and reading aloud, and the classically romantic presentation may even attract middle-grade girls. Janice Del Negro

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 56 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; 1St Edition edition (September 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0027443558
• ISBN-13: 978-0027443554
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,221,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A simply beautiful picture book, just right for any child-or grown up!, June 12, 2011

By 

A. Lucy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snowbear Whittington: An Appalachian Beauty and the Beast (Hardcover)

This beautiful book was bought for me by my mother when I was a child, and I have loved and cherished it for years. The story is sweet and beautiful-very, very similar in tone to the fairytale "East of the sun, West of the moon" and not unlike the film "The polar bear king". If anyone reading this review has ever read "Grandfather tales", they might like to know that this book is very much like one of the stories in that collection as well. As for the pictures, they are beautiful. The white bear is stunning and so is the detail that goes into all the characters and backgrounds. In short, this book is very sweet and a charming book to share with children, or fairytale loving grown ups.

I love this book just as much now as I did as a kid and still like to look at the pictures just to cheer myself up from time to time, or even simply for the heck of it, just to enjoy it for what it is, not caring that I'm supposed to be a grown-up now.

A must have for any fairy-tale book collection!