The Provensen Book of Fairy Tales by Alice ProvensenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
There are some books that are guaranteed to make lifelong readers out of children, when put into their hands during their precious, impressionable period. It's not enough that these books feature colorful illustrations. They need to have magical words inside as well, that lend themselves well to read-alouds with Mommy dearest before bedtime. This beautiful book is one of them!
It's pure gorgeousness, from cover to back. The table of contents alone is a work of art unto itself! Featuring 12 literary fairy tales ("consciously created works of literature" as opposed to folk fairy tales) compiled and illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, it is a feast for the senses that I drew out for as long as possible.
I found it interesting that I only knew 2 of the dozen fairy tales (The Happy Prince and Beauty and the Beast). Adults will enjoy this as well!
The illustrations by the Provensens are unique. While not beautiful in the traditional sense, they do have a strange magic about them, managing that strange mix of interesting and child-like. They remind me somewhat of the approach of Roald Dahl's illustrator, Quentin Blake. I think that, when children see these imperfect drawings, they are inspired in turn to draw scenes from the books, and are filled with confidence in their own nascent artistic skills instead of being overcome by doubt after seeing immaculate, perfect drawings in their story book.
It's interesting to read these fairy tales as an adult, because we get to see what values previous generations thought worthy of immortalizing in literature. Honesty, self-sacrifice, integrity... it would do the adult population of the world good to go back to our literary roots and be reminded that once upon a time, we believed that good would triumph over evil. May we never stop believing, still.
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