Flower Fables (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Daniel Shealy (Author), Daniel Sheal (Compiler, Editor), Leah Palmer Preiss (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: deep green moss, shining wings, happy flowers, Water Spirits, Air Spirits, Earth Spirits (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Written for Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter, Ellen, when Alcott was 16, and first published in 1855, these six prosy fairy tales were chosen from a 1992 collection, Louisa May Alcott's Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories, edited by Daniel Shealy; Shealy provides an informative afterword here. Readers meet a cast of elves, fairies, brownies and sprites with such Shakespearean names as Willy Wisp, Moonbeam and Thistledown, and the children who occasionally dally with them. Thinly disguised morality lessons told in an over-upholstered style, they instruct the audience in the importance of various virtues. In "The Frost King," for example, elves resolve to conquer the ice-hearted ruler of winter through peaceable means ("Let us teach you how beautiful sunshine and love and happy work can make you"). More than a little dated, the stories grow tedious with lofty homilies (e.g., "little Annie dwelt like a sunbeam in her home, each day growing richer in the love of others and happier in herself"). Preiss's (The Pig's Alphabet) garish artwork further hampers an emotional connection to the stories. The lack of tonal subtlety is aggravated by a self-consciously multicultural-esque grouping of fairy folk with oversize but misshapen eyes and bizarrely pointed ears and chins. Even the typeface, which has distractingly flowery ligatures, is overdone. All but the most die-hard Alcott fans can skip this one. Ages 5-12.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Flower Fables is a treasury of six different stories penned by Louisa May Alcott. These old-fashioned fairy tales have been compiled and edited by Daniel Shealy, who has done editing on several Alcott books. The text is very readable, and has magic flavor added via the font's joining together of several letters. Today's children, like many children of the past, will enjoy meeting Alcott's fairies, sentient flowers, and other real and imagined characters. Illustrator Leah Palmer Preiss has filled the book with delightful and interesting fairies and other creatures. The illustrations are bright and full. Readers may want to watch for the bonuses of quotations and tiny portraits of those who influenced Louisa May Alcott. This book would make a good bedtime storybook, and like many tales of old, has good morals that children could take away with them perhaps without even realizing there was a lesson involved. The afterword is also interesting as it shares interesting details about Miss Alcott. For example, she wrote these tales when she was 16. Another bonus at the end of the book is the biographies that go along with the quotations and miniature portraits. -- From Independent Publisher

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Okey-Doke Productions, Inc.; 1st edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966093305
• ISBN-13: 978-0966093308
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,859,520 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully illustrated compilation of fables., June 24, 1998

By A Customer

This discovery of unpublished fables by Louisa May Alcott should be read by children during their important impressionable years. The illustrations are beautiful and complimentary to the text. While classics of Louisa May Alcott, Little Women and Little Men, are for the early teens, these fables for the preteens tease the imagination in a magical way. This sort of alternative to the upbringing of children by the video media is sorely needed and provided by Flower Fables.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flower Fables, December 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Flower Fables (Hardcover)

This was the most enchanting book I think that I have ever read. Such beautiful illustrations.