Sleeping Beauty

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Summary: A lush and ornate Sleeping Beauty
Review: Although the tale is well-known and almost as popular as Cinderella, there are few picture books of Sleeping Beauty currently in print. The Crafts have helped to fill the void with this lushly written and illustrated version of the classic tale. The tale is romantic and Kinuko Craft's illustrations are her usual high standard, this time with a baroque whimsy that will delight young and old readers. I have seen grown-ups reaching to thumb through the book as often as the children in my library and at the bookstore. If you are not familiar with Craft's illustrations, this book is a perfect introduction while presenting a fairy tale princess in all of her baroque splendor. It's also great if you have been looking for that perfect bedtime fairy tale so rarely seen in this format. ...

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Summary: Beauty!
Review: I am sure it will come as no surprise that K.Y. Craft has created another breath-takingly beautiful picture book. This retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora or Brair Rose by Mahlon F. Craft, the artist's husband, is romantic and magical, with courtly language and all the drama one expects from this marvelous old tale. It is a delightful read. The illustrations truly make the book the treasure that it is and include lovely illuminated text as well as full page and double page spreads throughout. Craft's characteristic eye for detail is everywhere evident as is her flair for decorative flora and fauna, costumes, jewelry and interiors. The angry 13th fairy, snubbed without an invitation to the princess's christening who curses the child is painted with a grand touch of maleficence while the 12th fairy whose magical gift saves the baby's life is uncanny and sparkly with a golden power that eminates from the illustrations. The landscapes have a marvelous Renaissance feel and are brooding and deep and magically enhance the story with a certain wildness. A beautiful Alsatian dog with a fairy collar of light around his neck is a secret guardian in several pictures and I suspect this dog may be a very familair friend to the author and illustrator. This book is truly flawless and is destined to become a beloved heirloom. Don't miss it.

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Summary: The most beautifully illustrated childrens' book ever
Review: I have four children and a large collection of childrens' books, including some wonderfully illustrated classics. However, this book has the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen. I am a fan of Kinuko Craft's other books, but this one truly oudoes them all. Sleeping Beauty is a wonderful treat for kids, and anyone who appreciates truly beautiful art. Its classic story line and amazing illustrations make it the best bedtime story book I've seen.

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Summary: KY Craft is an artistic genious
Review: I have long been a fan of ms. Crafts illustrations. They are breathtakingly beautiful from a distance, and full of interesting and fantastic details upon closer examination. This book is no exception, and takes the classic story of the enchanted Princess Aurora, setting the tale in a romantic fantasy kingdom, with the artwork combining rennaisance, high baroque and modern artistic styles.

There are no words to describe how talented Craft is at capturing beauty, you must see it for yourself.

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Summary: The exquisite oil and watercolor art of K. Y. Craft
Review: The beginning of Sleeping Beauty reminds me of the classical myths of ancient Greece regarding prophecy: told that their daughter will prick her finger upon a spindle and die when she reaches the age of sixteen, the King and Queen order even spinning wheel in the land to be destroyed. In a classical myth trying to thwart a prophecy never works and sometimes, as in the case of Jocasta, can actually make things much worse. But in this fairy tale the Princess Aurora's fate has already been changed by the wish of the final fairy, so that she will not die, but rather sleep 100 years.

In this edition of "Sleeping Beuaty" author Mahlon F. Craft tries to embellish the familiar tale with some new touches: the King and Queen get to lay their beloved daughter to rest before they too fall asleep on their thrones; the princes who try to enter the barrier of brambles disappear, never to be seen again, rather than simply being unable to hack their way inside. However, the story is incidental in this case because of the exquisite illustrations of Kinuko Y. Craft. You will probably just forget to read the story the first time through this book because you will get totally enthralled looking at the accompanying art work.

There are nineteen illustrations done for "Sleeping Beauty," most of which are full pages or two-page spreads. The artwork for this book was prepared by using oil over watercolor on illustration board. These are what you would call finely detailed illustrations. I especially liked the way the soft gold of Aurora's hair is usually highlighted by the yellows and golds in her dress, as well as the way Craft plays with the light to give these pictures a sense of luminosity. The two-page spread of the prince awakening the Sleeping Beauty with a kiss looks like something from the Golden Age of Illustration in the first half of the century (like Howard Pyle, only better).

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Summary: Beauty!
Review: The five stars are for the artwork. Ms. Craft's work is brilliant and, as always, I find no fault with it. The style in this book reminds me of flemish tapestries, though some paintings seem to have a very strong Renaissance feel to them. Also noteworthy are the illuminated letters that introduce each page of text. They rival those of Medieval times. They employ a labyrinthine quality and I enjoyed gazing on these letters repeatedly, as I did the large paintings.

In addition to technical achivement with her lush details, Ms. Craft demonstrates a strong ability to tell a story with pictures in this volume. I very much admire this aspect to her work and I think she uses extraneous details wisely. Ms. Craft's details always enhance the narrative. They add something without giving the sense of simply being tacked into the works. For example, a mermaid child on the fountain goes through the enchantment with Beauty and leaves a little something to wonder about. This character is shown on a fountain in a painting in the opening where Beauty is playing a 12-stringed instrument. You wonder if the child is real or a statue. Later, you can the watery little thing sleeping peacefully inside the fountain when the prince arrives. I found this element to add a bit of mystery and a sense of old fashioned enchantment that has ancient, classical roots.

Another character that lives in the paintings is the German Shepard Dog that you can see clearly sleeping at Beauty's side. He's hardly noticeable, but he is depicted earlier, in a scene with the fairy. Evidently, this handsome dog is left behind to guard the princess. He's even seen in the last full page painting, adding a symbolic element of domesticity and safety, as he sits there and calmly gazes at the reader from his corner. I found him charmingly reminiscent of flemish Renaissance paintings.

I think that Mahlon Craft tried to do the same thing with his ancient frog. This frog swims with Beauty's mother, and to repay her for her songs, he fortells the birth of Beauty. I think I missed the frog's real meaning, if there was one. I found him distracting, creating a slow start for the book. The frog only seemed to be added in for the sake of stretching Mr. Kinuko's narrative, of giving the reader the prophecy in the space of a page, not a paragraph.
Another strange element that didn't seem to mesh tightly into the rest of Mr. Craft's narrative was the negligence of Beauty's parents on her 16th birthday. They leave her alone as they've gone out to buy her a very special gift. How does that make any sense? They are characterized as having feelings for their daughter and they had been warned that she would be afflicted on this day. How could they have been so callous to have left her? They learned their lesson about ignoring the 13th fairy right away, you'd think that they would take these things more seriously! This is the one place in Mahlon's story that I thought showed a weakness and could have been more thoroughly developed.

I have read published reviews of other collaborations done by the Crafts in which Mahlon Craft's writing was characterized as a bit bland and not matching his wife's work for artistic merit. I have agreed at least in part with that assesment until I collected this latest book and got past the strange, bumpy opening. In all fairness, I think that Mahlon's star is rising with the remainder of this text. The strange little frog and the neglect of the King and Queen aside, Mr. Craft creates a lovely narrative that sounds elegant when read aloud. His use of language is soft, gentle and evocative, at times an almost perfect match for the sleepy tapestry of paintings Ms. Craft provides.

I was most pleased with how Mr. Craft's story is a love story, and most of the versions of Sleeping Beauty that I have encountered don't exercise this emotion in the narrative. The other stories seem to focus almost exclusively on magic and retribution- the prince is merely an agent of change and offers little else to the narrative. In this book, however, there is an element of love that gives the story much of its meaning.

Only one prince, her soul mate, could awaken Beauty, for example. He isn't some fellow who comes along at the right time, he's special! His special quality is why he gets through the brambles: the other princes only "disappear" (and don't die in vain, as they do in other stories.) The value of being true to your heart, of waiting as long as necessary to choose the right love to live your life with is strongly affirmed. Mahlon's Beauty gazes on her prince with "tender glances" and informs him that, "These many long years only you have filled my dreams, for none other could awaken me from my spell. Now in love's sweet name at last our hearts will together be eternally bound."

This is sweet stuff, more poetic than others of Mr. Craft's I think, and where his cleverness shines most brightly.

In sum, I see two stories being told. One is in paint. It is enchanting, the brainchild of a true master who excels at her craft. The other story is told in the text. It is not bad, by any means, and is fairly pretty. It sounds pretty and makes sense most of the way through. It is the work of someone who has gotten better but is still outshone by others in his field and by the glorious paintings that they seem to have been written to support but not equal in beauty. A truly extraordinary book would be the one where the text matches the paintings, but with Kinuko Craft this may be too great a challenge for the children's book industry's wordsmiths. In my opinion, few modern works ever come close to happy marriage of beautiful text and beautiful pictures, as we see in the example of past masters, such as Howard Pyle. I do hope the Crafts keep up the effort- we are in need of some new timeless classics for this generation of readers and readers in the future.

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Summary: Oh My...
Review: This is beautiful! I have been a fan of Craft's fairy tales for quite some time, especially her version of "Cinderella," but this takes the cake. The fairies are one of my favorite parts. They have filmy wings and gossamer gowns but the bad fairy, well, she is neither gossamer nor filmy. If you have seen Craft's "Baba Yaga," Baba Yaga looks a lot like the evil fairy. Aurora is simply perfect. Her blonde curly hair, her perfect face, and her angelic disposition all comprise the ideal fairy tale princess. Craft's paintings demand a second glance, because new details can be found on each page. For example, the reader will see swans throughout the book in the castle's rooms. The retelling, which was written by Craft's husband, is a more extended version but remains with tradition. For example, the frog still tells the queen the good news, there are thirteen fairies and the princess sleeps for 100 years. This book is truly a work of art and should become THE "Sleeping Beauty" for both children's book collectors and fairy tale collectors. Happy Reading!