I was shocked when I opened this book to see how familiar the illustrations were, even though I am sure that I have never seen them before. Instead my memory is remembering the artistic style of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which clearly draws inspiration from Mayer's illustrations. The qulity of line is unique enough to be instantly recognizable, especially in his depictions of roses and architecture (which are highly stylized rather than realistic). The trees and scenery also evoke the same wild and enchanting tone as the film, even though Disney went in a very different direction when illustrating the cast of characters. The only character similarity that I could see is between the human form of the Beast/Prince, and even then Disney chose to blend some of Mayer's ideas with their own character stylings to make the characters more cohesive throughout the film. ( )

Honestly, I had never watched or read the full story of beauty and the beast before this. I had heard of the beast and the magical rose in the glass case and the ball of living happily ever after. But never had I understood the underlying plot of struggle and sacrifices and bravery that is represented throughout. I loved that this book truly taught beauty is in the eye of the bolder and inside personality, beauty conquers all. This book transformed me into a movie of plot and character development. As I learned the story of the selfishness of Beauty for her dad and how the rose was more symbolic then love itself I was captivated by this book. The story of him stealing and beauty going back to the palace for her father was amazing additions to what I once thought of this "cliche' " book became so much more. I loved that she had dreams of this "godmother" that told her to stop looking so far for true love; that it may be hidden right in front of her face. Once she helped the beast become more friendly to her and love her it was wonderful. The details of the dream spot being where the beast begins to die while beauty is off healing her dad is so powerful to touch my emotions and make me chant on for true love. Reading fairytales brings me back to my innocent childhood of hopes and dreams and brightens my day, reading these made me realize you do not need to be young for a little spark of magic or happiness. ( )

Beauty and the Beast is a classic tale written by Marianna Mayer and illustrated by Mercer Mayer published in 1975. In this edition of Beauty and the Beast, Mercer Mayer paintings show beauty in the beast in a magical dark beautiful way while Marianna Mayer describes the story of Beauty, a hard-working, beautiful girl who move to the country with her father, two sisters and three brothers from a rich home with servants. Beauty is content with the change but her sisters are not and complain. When the father is kidnapped by the Beast, the story continues similar the Disney version of beauty in the Beast with them falling in love. Beast decided to let Beauty leave after her father becomes ill and her sisters convince her to stay out of jealousy. The Beast becomes ill due to missing her and when she returns he dies and he kisses him and he turns to a prince and they get married and live happy while her sisters hate. The theme of this picture book is true love conquers all. ( )

This picture book for children reading at about the fifth grade level is one of the most beautiful and well-written I've ever come across. The text, by Marianna Meyer, is well-written and evocative, and the illustrations, by Mercer Mayer, are stupendous. Mercer Mayer uses a combination of watercolor and pen and ink to achieve some of the best illustrations I've ever seen in a children's book. This is a treasure. ( )

This book would be best used as an independent read for grades 3-5 because it is so different from the Disney version that older grades would be better able to see the differences and understand. For this book, if they read it there would be a quick write of how they think the spell changed the character of the beast for better or worse. If this spell allowed him to see the world differently because of how he was treated.