From Publishers Weekly
Strauss explores "the theme of metamorphosis in fairy tales" in this stunning collection of 12 dramatic monologues by familiar fairy tale characters at a moment of crisis or confrontation. The voices in these poems are both strong and complex, and the themes the characters explore--fear, loneliness, shame, jealousy--are as stark as Browne's evocative black-and-white illustrations that seem to reveal the characters' souls. We see Hansel and Gretel's father seated underneath Edvard Munch's famous woodcut, telling how the pebbles he gave his son "rattle in his dreams." We hear the wolf imagining how Red Riding Hood "will have the youngest skin / he has ever touched, her fingers unfurling / like fiddle heads in spring." Like Anne Sexton's "Cinderella," Strauss's poems are best suited to an adult audience, but they offer readers new wine in old bottles, a fresh view of familiar territory in language that has depth and power. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up --A dozen small crystalline fairy-tale moments are captured in the amber of poetry. Each telling vignette is graced by a stark black - and - white pen-and-ink drawing that contains hidden visual surprises in counterpoint to the written portraits. Hansel and Gretel's solemn father contemplates smooth white stones; Bluebeard is mad-eyed; the Beast hides his eyes, dejection in every line. These characters have gone "into the woods" in the manner of the Sondheim musical or of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber (Penguin, 1987). Such sensual, haunting, and disturbing portraits will intrigue thoughtful YA readers, and could provide an avenue to writing for anyone who wonders what happened after "ever after." --Holly Sanhuber, Muskego Public Library, WI
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
