Annie Dalton

Eight folk and fairy-tales featuring princesses from around the world are gathered in this lovely collection from author Annie Dalton and fabric artist and illustrator Belinda Downes. The selections include:

The Princess and the Pea, a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's classic Danish tale, in which a young woman's true royal status is determined by the delicacy of her skin, and her ability to sleep on a pea. This is a story retold countless times, in many different forms. My favorite picture book version is the one illustrated by Dorothée Duntze.

The Frog Princess, in which Prince Ivan finds himself married to a kind-hearted and very clever frog bride, who fulfills all of her father-in-law's demands, and is eventually revealed as Vassilissa the Wise. This traditional Russian tale has been retold in picture book form a number times, including in the beautiful edition done by J. Patrick Lewis and Gennady Spirin, and the fabulous one illustrated by Ivan Bilibin.

King Grizzlebeard, a Brothers Grimm tale in which a too-clever princess finds herself married to a musician and reduced to poverty after her rudeness to all of her suitors. Fortunately for her, her new husband is not all that he seems. I have more commonly seen this story translated as either "King Thrushbeard" or "King Grisly-Beard." Another retelling can be found in Shirley Climo's collection, A Treasury of Princesses: Princess Tales from Around the World.

The Starlight Princess, an Indian folktale about a beautiful Rajah's daughter who emits the light of stars, and how she is won by a brave Rajah's son, who possesses the ability to speak to animals. I was not familiar with this tale, which is apparently an adaptation of a story entitled How the Rajah's Son Won the Princess Laba'm, to be found in the 1879 collection, Indian Fairy Tales, by Maive S.H. Stokes. Although new to me, some of the story elements here—the hero who aids a series of animals, who aid him in return—were quite familiar, as they appear in many such tales.

The Sleeping Beauty, the celebrated French fairy-tale from Charles Perrault, in which a beautiful young princess is cursed by a vengeful fairy, and falls into a hundred-year sleep after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel, only to be awakened by the prince her is her true love. Retellings of this story abound! Two of my absolute favorites are those illustrated by Kinuko Craft and by Trina Schart Hyman.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses, another classic tale from the Brothers Grimm, in which the eponymous princesses dance their shoes to tatters every night, much to the consternation of their father. An injured soldier, down on his luck, is the one who solves the riddle, and wins the hand of the princess of his choice. Here again retellings abound, with favorites including those illustrated by Kinuko Craft, Dorothée Duntze and Ruth Sanderson.

The Egg Prince, a Bantu tale from Zimbabwe, in which Princess Lebou is engaged to a magical egg, given to her future father-in-law by his dying wife, and containing a true prince. With the help of her father's magic, Lebou ensures that this egg becomes the prince it is meant to be. This story, with which I was unfamiliar, and which I found rather creepy, was originally collected in the 1921 Specimens of Bantu Folklore by Father J. Torrend.

White-Bear-King-Valemon, a Norwegian folktale in which a princess dreams of an extraordinary golden crown, eventually marrying the white bear which possesses said crown. Eventually falling in love with her husband, the princess disregards his warning, and gazes upon him in the night, thereby setting in motion a curse which necessitates her pursuit of him, through many trials. Quite similar to the better-known East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon, this story has been retold (in a form combined with two other tales) in Tanya Robyn Batt & Nicoletta Ceccoli's The Princess and the White Bear King.

I found The Starlight Princess and Other Princess Stories to be an absolute delight. Annie Dalton's retellings were engaging, and fun to read, while Belinda Downe's embroidered illustrations were just beautiful. I appreciated the foreword from Downes, describing her method, and the materials she used in creating these visuals, and I enjoyed poring over the illustrations themselves. This is definitely one I would recommend to young folk and fairy-tale lovers, particularly those who enjoy princess stories. From a thematic perspective, it could pair very nicely with the Climo collection mentioned above, A Treasury of Princesses: Princess Tales from Around the World, and from an aesthetic perspective, it would make a good companion to Tanya Robyn Batt's The Fabrics of Fairytale: Stories Spun from Far and Wide, which also features fabric-art illustrations.… (mer)

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A brutal murder brought three strangers with dogs together. Three differently damaged women have questions. Was the woman they all briefly knew murdered as part of a serial killer's plan or was it a one-off using the serial aspect to hide guilt. The next death is related, but the question in this case is was it really suicide by a terminally ill man or was it murder. The plot is tight and realistic complete with some surprising red herrings and twists, the characters are so very well done and engaging. I really liked it and will hunt down the next!… (mer)