Customer Reviews

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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

 

 

One can always trust the talents of Joan Aiken to put a fresh spin on an enduring classic. It's wonderful to read a version of the Snow White story in which the heroine is not pure sappiness personified, where the wicked queen is not simply the embodiment of all that is evil, where the magic mirror has something of a sarcastic attitude, and where so many little details of the story, long taken for granted, are actually EXPLAINED: why the queen has these magical powers, how she acquired the mirror, how the huntsman handled his deception, what the dwarves' names were, where the charming prince lived...And the embroidered illustrations are, just simply, magical---the detail and cleverness will hold the attention of any squirming small child. I can't wait to read this aloud to my niece and nephew, and show them the wonderful pictures.

All I can say is WOW! It may be hard to tell from the picture, but all of the illustrations in this book are actually very beautiful, very intricate embroidery work. It's unbelievable and very exquisite when you see it in person. ALso look at her other kids book, The Starlight Princess -- Amazon's so great with the ability to see inside of the book and you can see inside the Starlight Princess to see better detail of Belinda Downes' exceptional work. What brilliant illustrations!! Cannot say enough!!

The illustrations are okay, but this adaptation strays too far from the original story. She gives the dwarves silly names, worse than Disney, Fred and Ted--good grief. And naming the dwarves serves no purpose. The ending is totally made up. In Snow White, there is no shattered mirror, no enchanter who reclaims it, if you want to write your own story do so--why muck with the fairy tales.

We found this book at our local library and I was so taken with it that I special-ordered a used copy. The artwork is just lovely and my daughter enjoyed the humor that the author added to the story -- particularly Snow White's sampling of the food at the Dwarfs' house and the character given to the magic mirror. I occasionally get up in arms about changes made to the "original," but these changes were in keeping with the version I was familiar with, and with folklore one would expect variation to improve the telling. That is certainly what happened here.