by Brigette Barrager (Author) Brigette Barrager (Illustrator)
An easy retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who dance secretly all night long and how their secret is eventually discovered.
The talented Brigette Barrager lavishly illustrates this beautiful retelling of the Grimm Brothers' The Twelve Dancing Princesses. In this fairy tale, twelve princesses wake up every morning to find their shoes are worn out and they are totally exhausted! A handsome suitor discovers that the princesses are enchanted, and that each night, in their sleep, they travel to a magical world to dance at a ball. Will this handsome suitor be able to break the spell and rescue the princesses?
WorldCat is the world's largest library catalog, helping you find library materials online.
Barrager brings a fittingly soigne aesthetic to this retelling, deftly balancing the story's comedy and mystery as the exhausted sisters flummox the court by day and transform into an unstoppable balletic force by night. The crisp, doll-like characterizations and glowing, softly saturated palette recall the work of Mary Blair. If anything keeps this pretty volume from claiming a permanent place on the shelf, it's editorial rather than visual: in a major departure, Barrager turns the dancing dozen into the unwitting victims of a magic spell--sleepwalkers incapable of enjoying their enchanted journey to the ballroom in the magical forest. Being damsels in distress, they need a rescuer; a humble palace cobbler who announces, "I can't let this continue," and breaks the spell with a kiss to the lead sister's hand. No longer the willing (even conniving) agents of an illicit and ecstatic nightly adventure, the dancing princesses feel merely ornamental, and one of the Grimm Brothers' most intriguing tales--at its core, a thrilling battle of wits--becomes just another happily ever after. Ages 4-8. (May)
Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.K-Gr 3--The traditional tale of the enchanted princesses who dance the night away plays out as ballet in this sprightly telling. Barrager adds a bit of detail and nuance to the familiar plot, naming the girls after blooms in the garden--Rose, Iris, Daisy, Tulip. "Each one was lovelier than the flower she was named for." The digital depictions render the girls as flat figures with large, cartoon-style eyes, but they waft lightly across the royal lawn, their petal-shaped skirts all in pretty colors. Readers quickly learn that they are a droopy, sleepy lot most of their days, and the text offers a hint of things to come in the figure of the shoemaker. He mends the royal shoes, eventually solves the mystery of the enchanted nights, and wins the hand of his favorite princess, the red-haired Poppy. "Poppy really liked Pip, too, but she just couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to say so." With art resembling that of animated film and several graceful dance scenes, this story could easily be set to a sound track. The plot is true to that told by the Grimms, and nice bits of dialogue and observations by Pip thread easily through the narrative, bringing the characters to life and offering a pleasing tale for reading aloud and storytelling.--Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.