Customer Reviews

Three Golden Keys, The

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This dark and intricately illustrated book is simply excellent. The art work in it is fantastic and it gives a magically haunting overview of growing up in Prague. It has a magic cat with glowing eyes that walks the young traveler through the streets of his homeland. The drawings are rich with story and intricate with legend. It is an intense book, and some of the legends are dark and spooky. I wouldn't recommend it for children under the age of six, but for children who are just awakening to legend, history, and fairy tale, this is a must. I personally think it is a must for adults as well - I keep my copy on the coffee table because, really, the art as well as the story is of that caliber and it makes a great coversation piece. The book also has a fascinating development story, as well. Peter Sis was apparently encouraged and motivated by Jackie Onasis, working at Double Day at the time, to produce this wonderful book for his young daughter. Sis wanted to produce a piece for his daughter so that she would always know where her daddy came from. Jackie O. helped make Sis' dream a reality. It really is a fine piece of art, history, and story.

I bought this book for my daughter when she was only three. Yes, way too young in some ways, but it immediately became her favorite book because it can be read on so many levels and the pictures carried her imagination to new places. It's the story of a man who somehow magically goes back in time to his home in Prague when he was a child. This introduced a sense of history, of other places defined by their unique history, even a sense of old Europe, to my daughter. You can read the book on many levels because it has small, detailed stored written in boxes and these can be saved for when a child gets older. It's really a magical book for any age. We've gone on to be Peter Sis fans and enjoy all of his stories. Some of them are little masterpieces.

Peter Sis, who has written and illustrated the Caldecott Honor books "Tibet Through the Red Box" and "Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei," wrote "The Three Golden Keys" for his daughter, Madeline. The book begins with a handwritten letter to Madeline, explaining that while she was born in New York, in the New World, he wants to share with her the mystery of Prague, the city in which he was raised. So he spins the story of how his hot-air balloon was blown off course in a violent storm and landed in the Prague of his childhood. There he finds his wa yto his old home, only to find the house dark and three rusty padlocks on the door. He knows that he must find the keys to unlock the locks to get inside. Fortunately his old black cat shows up and as the man follows her through the winter streets of his childhood, they are filled with memories.

Three times in this story, as the seasons change, the man comes to a special place from his childhood, and in each place an old Czech legend is revealed to the man and his cat. The first is the legend of the night Bruncvik, the second the story of the Golem, and the third the story of Mast Hanus and his astronomical clock. Attached to each legend is a golden key, and once the man has collected them the city comes alive and he goes to open the door to his house and see what magical things await him there. Just be forewarned that when you kids read this book that they might be disappointed that their parents were not born in a distant land (fortunately I am safe on that score, although I have never been back to the city of my birth, but I would like to go, although by something other than a hot-air balloon).

The cover illustration for "The Three Golden Keys" does not give you any real indication of the visual delights inside. My only real issue with this book is that the three legends are each told in a single double-page spread, with twenty-four illustrations (approximately one-inch by one-and-a-half-inches each) surrounding the text section, which has captions for each (unnumbered) drawing after an introduction, surrounding a giant drawing of a key. Given that the rest of the book consists of full-page or double-page illustrations rich in detail and full of color, the little comic strip versions of the legends suffer a bit in comparison, although they are as finely detailed as the rest of the art work. Besides, it would not bother me if this book was two or three times longer to work everything in because you are not going to get tired of Sis's artwork.

We took this book out of local library after recommendation from a friend. It's fascinating! The illustrations are very details and one can spend hours investigating them. I was dissatisfied with the "keys" themselves, though. On the search after the keys to the author's childhood home he finds three scrolls with three Prague's folk tales. The tales are written in a neat script in the middle of scroll-decorated page fold. Even as an adult I found the tales difficult to read and not engaging enough to bother to read. Let alone if I were a kid! Overall, it's a good study-introductory book, but it's is unclear what the target audience is. Certainly not early elementary.

Both my 6-year-old daughter and I love this book so much. Beautiful illustration as the other works of Peter sis, with a facinating story.

After being to Prague and learning from one of the professors there about Peter Sis I returned home to my University work. At lunch with a friend recently, she mentioned Peter Sis and The Three Golden Keys. I found it on amazon and purchased it. It is such a character building story for all of us. It calls us to realize the importance of our actions and treatment of others. The illustrations are carefully crafted. It is an inspiring book that every parent should read and discuss with their child.

Having travelled a couple of times to Prague and wandered its streets I found it lovely to revisit some of those sites in this wonderful quirky book. I can happily recommend it for both adults and children. Peter Sis is an illustrator extraordinaire!

The book is beautiful - both copy and illustration. My son's grandfather is from Prague, so I bought this book for him to read to my son. I was delighted to find it.