King Midas: The Golden Touch

Gr 2-4-Demi's terse, choppy retelling will not appeal to those who like classic tales left intact, because nearly all that remains of the original story is the king's name and the golden touch itself. The reteller portrays King Midas as "weak and ignorant, miserly and greedy," a man who, when asked to judge a music contest between Apollo and Pan, chooses the less talented Pan as the victor, causing the angry Apollo to curse him with furry donkey's ears. Midas is granted the golden touch by the god Dionysus as a reward for returning Silenus the Satyr to him. The golden spell is broken when he visits an oracle, who tells him to bathe in the River Pactolus. Illustrations feature detailed gilded borders top and bottom-a different pattern on each spread. Gold highlights the clothing of the cartoon-faced, stylized characters, as well. Charlotte Craft's King Midas and the Golden Touch (Morrow, 1999), with its classic medieval-style oil-and-watercolor paintings by K. Y. Craft, and John Warren Stewig's King Midas (Holiday, 1999), populated by Omar Rayyan's whimsical creatures and caricature-faced Midas, are both skillful retellings of the myth in which the king realizes the folly of his wish after he turns his beloved daughter into gold.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

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