This was a cute book, but I didn’t like it as much as I did Patience’s version of Cinderella. He utilizes the same blend of illustration and collage, but to a much lesser extent due to the nature of the scenery and characters - more outdoors backgrounds and fewer big costumes beside the Piper’s. The only illustration which I thought was really successful on a more than basic level was the frontispiece which shows the Piper leading Hamelin’s children away. This piece shows the characters in black silhouette against a startlingly bright illustrated background, creating a contrasting scene which seems to lead readers into the story alongside the path of the children and Piper. This illustration blocks out the major characters of the story, which is an unorthodox technique, but this too creates a mystery for the reader who now wants to find out what happens in the story. The shadowy characters also foreshadow the darker tone in the story itself, which is told with little mincing of words. We see the rats brutally drowned off Hamelin’s harbour pier and the greed of the town’s leaders is apparent, which leads up to the Piper’s theft of the town’s children - seemingly without care. The Piper character is always a mysterious one, as he enters the town with little fanfare and no personal or background details are given, but Patience’s straightforward description of his actions does nothing to soften the character, leaving reader’s with an unease with the events of the story even though the morals are made clear. ( )