This is a beautiful edition of the classic tale from The Thousand and One Nights . Early's highly detailed, bordered illustrations offer tiny geometric mosaics in each picture, and combine dark greens, salmon pink, red, white and bronze to great effect. The characters, musical instruments and settings are all well suited to the tale. The book, however, is marred by complicated prose; the sentences are cluttered with grammatical turns and bends that slow the pace: "Thus it was that the robber chief, disguised in a long beard, came to be invited to eat in the house of the man he planned to kill." Sentences like this carry a certain weight and suspense, but as a staple of the prose style, they fail. Fortunately, the art alone is worth the price. The characters Morgiana and brave Ali Baba come through with great charm. All ages.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 1 Up-- McVitty's measured retelling of this favorite tale from 1001 Arabian Nights provides inspiration for striking illustrations by Australian artist Margaret Early. Intensely colored, intricately patterned, and lavishly illuminated, her full-page paintings and decorative borders, modeled after 10th-century Persian miniatures, are suggestive of the "expensive silks and costly rugs" Ali Baba discovered in the robbers' cave. But, despite their elegance and sophistication, there is considerable storytelling power to Early's paintings. Figures and forms may be stylized, but the lines are graceful and flowing, and the compositions anything but static. Characters pose expressively in service of both illustrations and text and are distinguishable by both their features and their garb. One quibble: Early's lavish use of gold is impressive, but the resultant glare makes the text difficult to read in some lights. Still, this is a well-conceived and beautifully executed interpretation of a favorite tale. A welcome addition to folklore collections large and small. --Marcia Hupp, Mamaroneck Public Library, N.Y.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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