Customer Reviews

Tatsinda (HBJ Contemporary Classic)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was a girl I loved checking this book out at our library, both for the beautiful illustrations and for Tatsinda herself. Of course Tatsinda would have had no difficulty having her beauty appreciated in the USA. It could have been her personal tragedy that she has brown eyes and golden hair in a land where everyone else has blue eyes and white hair, so she's considered disfigured. Tatsinda does not allow the rude opinion of those around her to sour her personality. The strength and courage of this extraordinary young woman are proved in a daring adventure. In the end, she is instrumental in changing her community's narrow point of view. Besides the heroine, I love the wise woman who knew Tatsinda's true worth before anyone else did. I also liked the woman's attitude toward people who wanted to consult her. I don't have the book with me at the moment, so I hope I'm quoting her correctly: "Waste not my time, waste not your own. Ask only that which MUST be known." My review's title comes from the fact that this wonderful book was out of print for many years. Back when I was in library school ['76-'77] and had no car, another student from my dormitory was nice enough to give several of us a lift to a local used bookstore. There I spotted a copy of TATSINDA. I bought it even though the driver saw it and exclaimed that she loved that book. I felt horrible because she would have been able to buy it for herself if she hadn't done me a kindness, but my better nature did not prevail. I never saw her again after graduation, so I couldn't even mail her another used copy I found. I'm so glad the book is in print again, not just for all the readers who now have a chance to be as enchanted as I was, but because that nice lady can get her own copy.

When blonde Tatsinda is dropped, literally, into the mountaintop land of the Tatrajanni, her unusual coloring sets her apart from the people of the kingdom. She must overcome their prejudice to win the love of the prince and establish her own worth in their midst. The book is full of strange and mystical characters and creatures.

Tatsinda is a strong female character in a book that was written long before this was the norm. It was my favorite book when I was ten and still is as I pass it along to all the ten year olds on my gift giving list.

I read this book in 1966 as my mother was dying in a hospital. I put it back on the library cart and never saw it again although I thought about finding it for decades. Thanks to internet searches, I was able to recomnnect with it. It is a powerful book and great fantasy. Enright was a wonderful children's author. I enjoy the book now as an adult as much as I did as an 11 year old.

I am very disappointed with the new illustrations. The original Irene Haas artwork was brilliant and period-perfect. You can get a copy with the Haas work used pretty easily.

Tatsinda is one of those wonderful books that you read to your children over and over again, and then they pass it on because they love it. It focuses on a young woman that overcomes discrimination with her charm, wit, and sense of beauty. The story is marvelous, but Treherne's illustrations do it little justice. Her work has moments of stunning beauty, but more often than not the slightly disfigured characters detract from the story and feel jarring and harsh against the beauty of the book. Look for the Haas illustrated edition instead.

This was one of my favorite books as a child. It's a beautiful story, beautifully told, and the Irene Haas illustrations are to die for. It's nice to see this back in print, but the new illustrations look very disappointing. Whyever did they think the story needed new ones? For a far more imaginative and beautiful take on the story, buy a used vintage copy illustrated by Irene Haas.

I can not recommend this book highly enough to anyone with a daughter or son around 8-10 and up. I checked this book out of the library when I was a little girl so many times they should have given me my own copy. Its a wonderful story about a girl who is different from everybody else around her and is treated with pity and indifference because of it. It has all kinds of great sub plots, love, strength, good verses evil, acceptance... all the kinds of things that we want our children to live by. At the same time it is filled with wonderful fantasy creatures and names and the illustrations from the original are as fresh in my memory today as they were then.This book meant so much to me that if I ever had a daughter that was going to be her name. My son,(Shadoe),read it when he was in 2nd grade and we donated a copy to his school library that year. I also bought a new copy and donated it to the library where i first checked it out, their copy was long since gone. And this year, for Christmas, I am buying it for a little adopted Asian girl who said she doesn't fit in because she's different.A beautful book, a wonderful story and something worth sharing.You might want to read it yourself before you pass it on though. Enjoy!!

This charming tale, slightly dated but still relevant in its treatment of diversity as opposed to uniformity, made its first appearance in a 1963 edition published by Harcourt, Brace & World. It is a pleasure to see "Tatsinda" on the bookshelves and in libraries again. The story of a beautiful white-haired, blue/green-eyed race of people living in isolation at the top of the world, and what happens when a golden-haired, dark-eyed girl is dropped into their midst, is delightful, and the author has created a lovely, paradise-like country which is perfect in every respect except for tolerance of "difference." While the illustrations accompanying this reissue are attractive and colorful, I miss the airy delicacy and Arthur Rackham-like beauty of the original illustrations by Irene Haas.

This is a cautionary tale dressed up as a fairytale. It is about a community that mistreats a child who doesn't look like them. But, of course, her differences are what save them all in the end. I've loved Tatsinda since I was a very small girl.