James Donnelly (1)

As a parent and as a book lover, I can tell you that there are some wonderful children's books, but there is a lot of dreck out there too. I'm amazed at how many people can't recognize the former and default to the later. Three Classic Children's Stories is firmly in the "wonderful" group, and would stand up to many, many rereadings without making the parents want to scratch their own eyes out or hang themselves from the bunk bed ladder.

Fairy tales are known for their detached, calm, and detail-free style, and also for pretty flat characters. Donnelly breaks these rules with playful language, humour, and just enough detail to add a touch of richness to the stories. The Edward Gorey illustrations are of course strangely charming.

Little Red Riding Hood is my favourite fairy tale. The version here is generally the one you know, with enough details to make it unique and give it colour. The second story, Jack the Giant Killer, is not the same story as Jack in the Beanstalk, so was a surprise to me. A good story, and one I didn't know. Rumpelstiltskin is another favourite of mine that I can hear over and over. The list of names that the Queen comes up with when trying to outsmart Rumpelstiltskin will entertain all but the most humourless reader. I think "Octumber" was the best, but I also really liked some from the end of the alphabet: "Uvula, Venividivici, Wobshire, . . . Yipple."

Recommended for: It would make a fabulous gift for any new parents or for children (aged 1 through 90). It even has luxurious satiny pages, so the giver wouldn't look cheap. ;-) Other than that, lovers of these tales and fans of Gorey will want to own this book.

Rating: 4.5 stars. It could have been longer by including a few more stories, and I would have really loved Jack and the Beanstalk ("Fe Fi Fo Fum I smell the blood of an Englishman!" Yikes! The giant can distinguish different types of blood just by smell, and before no one is bleeding? That's pretty frightening.)… (plus d'informations)

Every aspect of this book is stunningly beautiful. From the retelling of each of three fairy tales to the illustrations, to the use of colour, every bit of it is an absolute joy to read. While each element of the whole has been brought together for this particular book from separate origins -- Gorey's illustrations are pre-existing, the colouring added later for this text, Donnelly presumably did not collaborate with Gorey before the latter passed, and the simple fact that these fairy tales have existed in many forms down the ages and this is simply a new iteration -- they work so beautifully all together that were it not for the facts, it would be easy to believe Three Classic Children's Stories was created out of whole cloth.

As usual, Gorey's illustrations at once evoke a wistful sense of the past and provide enough playfulness with the subject matter that they are an absolute delight to view. My very favourites were in "Little Red Riding Hood," where each illustration acts as a vignette that seems to tell a far larger story than merely one short moment out of the larger tale. He is especially adroit in how he poses each figure, and in how so many of the illustrations, the characters appear to be caught in their actions, as if they have become still upon viewing, and will move again once the book is closed and the reading audience has looked away. Another highlight was Gorey's depiction of Rumpelstiltskin, each new pose presented one after another until the overall effect is as if you're viewing the tumble of a court jester across the pages.

The colouring, while, I believe, not originally done by Gorey, is definitely in his spirit. Although they are used with a slightly heavier hand than Gorey's more sparse colouring style, there is enough self-reflexivity in evidence that the colour choices and uses consciously add to the text rather than acting as a simple supporting characteristic. Each fairy tale is beautifully colour-coded: "Little Red Riding Hood," of course, relies strongly on the presence of red; "Jack the Giant-Killer" uses gorgeous touches of green; and "Rumpelstiltskin," the most colourful of all three stories, uses orange to indicate the presence and influence of the title character. All together, the colours both work to make the main characters of each story stand starkly out and to make these fairy tales appealing to children and adults alike.

Although I primarily wanted this book because I'm a fan of Gorey's work, Donnelly's narratives are a welcome joy. He presents the reader with fresh twists on these older tales, fleshing them out in new, interesting ways and injecting a little modern humour alongside. He creates fairy tales which regain some of their original intent, in which they are not just suitable for the ears of children, but adults as well, who will enjoy his artistry with language, sly asides, and subtle subtextual touches. He appears to have a little bit of Gorey in himself as well, as while he is a bit more verbose than Gorey usually is, he knows when to pull back and depict important turns in the plot with one line or two, relying on the audience to follow along with him rather than leading them by the hand. These more stripped-down moments of conflict speak volumes more through their silences than paragraphs and paragraphs would in their place.

All in all, this is an absolutely beautiful book, and one I'm so pleased to have in my collection. I would definitely recommend it to fans of Gorey, to fairy tale readers and collectors, and to parents and children looking for a fresh twist on the classic fairy story.… (plus d'informations)