Customer Reviews

The Twelve Dancing Princesses (Picture Puffin)

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

 

 

This is one of the best books my five year old daughter and I have ever read. We first got it out of the library, but I just ordered it because it's a book I know we'll re-read hundreds of times. Everybody knows the Grimm's story: twelve princesses escape every night to go dancing. Their father, the king, doesn't know where they go, only that that in the morning their dancing shoes are in tatters. He offers the hand of one of his daughers in marriage to any suitor who can discover their secrets.Many try, and finally one succeeds. There are two wonderful things about this version. One is that it's clear at the end of the book that the daughter who is chosen doesn't marry the man who figured out their secret. She chooses him „ and plans to keep right on dancing after she gets married! The second great thing about this book is the illustrations, which are so beautiful, you just want to look at them again and again. More important, the princesses are all beautiful, but in exotic and interesting ways. No one size fits all Disneyesque beauties here. Each face is unique. One even wears glasses! Terrific book.

These illustrations are fit for framing. The story is lovely, magical and fun. This is the stuff of great childrens books. A gem.

When a certain kind of book is read to you as a child, and read repeatedly at that, the child in question is affected in ways that cannot be gauged tangibly. I was read "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", illustrated by Errol Le Cain, repeatedly as a child and it has stuck with me ever since. Some books just do. For the entirety of my childhood life I loved "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" more than any other fairy tale, and it was all due to this beautifully mesmerizing book.

The classic story of how a king attempts to discover the reason why his daughters wear out their shoes every night is rendered here in sumptuous detail. Artist Le Cain spent much of his life in Singapore and India, and his early experiences are well represented in his work. From the gloomy caverns through which the princesses must walk, to the glittering gold, silver, and diamond forests located below the castle, I am still truly mesmerized reading this story. Every page opposite the text contains a border of delicate imaginings and illustrations. Heck, I've noticed things in it now that I never even THOUGHT to discover as a child. Who knew that the good fairy spied on the final wedding? Not I.

It's, to my mind, the most beautifully illustrated fairy tale ever made. If you doubt me, I only ask that you look at the last picture in the book. A parting shot of the abandoned princes, waiting for the princesses to return to their underground realm. Each looking depressed and unhappy as the fake stars and moon hang glittering in the underground sky. Beauty incarnate.

I specifically ordered the version illustrated by Errol Le Cain. Instead I received a most wretched version illustrated by Jane Ray. Now I will have to pay for shipping to return these monstrosities to the UK. I am extremely unsatisfied. This is misrepresentation at its best. Beware!

My granddaughter received this book from her Aunt. She loves princesses! She wears her little princess crown every day! The book itself is well written. I feel it is meant for children between the ages of 5 an older. My granddaughter is 3 yrs. old. She loved the pictures of the dancing princesses, but it did not keep her attention. I'm sure as she gets older, she will truly enjoy it.

This book has been a hit with our K-3rd grade girls. It introduces them to a "princess" tale they are unfamiliar with. The colorful illustrations really capture their imaginations and keep them interested in the story. The story line is not to difficult, and the CD really helps with the Hi/Lo reader. Not quite the Disney style princesses, but enough to get them to look at other versions of the stories they love.

I also ordered the Errol Le Cain and got the Jane Ray version! What is the deal? Why is this happening?

The book is a superficial story, illustrated by pictures in which all the characters are portrayed as dogs. It's a poorly executed version of the story of princesses who mysteriously dance away the night, and are spied upon by commoner who wins one's hand in marriage. This book is without internal structure. The final pages simply state that the youngest puppy falls in love with the worker dog because he brings her branches, which made no more sense to my four-year-olds than it did to me.

The book would have been lovely if I had received the actual book I ordered. The seller - paperbookshop in the uk advertised a version of the book that they did not have in stock!! I was bitterly disappointed to receive a very poor substitute version of the book I had ordered. They did not even bother to inform me that they did not have the item I ordered and simply shipped me a book I did not order!!

This makes me not want to buy things online. I wish I had seen the other people's angry reviews earlier but I think I bought it about the same time or a little before.

They said they would reimburse any reasonable shipping costs incurred in shipping the wrong book they shipped me back but have not responded to my later emails!! so I essentially paid $$ to ship the wrong book bk!! to find out the book was actually out of stock. i had emailed to specifically ask if they did have the right version and simply packed in error but they told me I had to ship the wrong book back to get the order "processed" so they could check for me. so in the end I lost money, ended up with no book and a bad taste in my mouth.