Caldecott Medal-winner Mordicai Gerstein - whose The Man Who Walked Between the Towers was awarded this important American illustrator's award in 2004 - turns his attention to the classic French fairy-tale of Beauty and the Beast in this picture-book, apparently also available in an animated version narrated by Mia Farrow. The story here includes all the major elements that fans of the tale would expect - the merchant and his three daughters (Beauty's two sisters are here named Edwina and Sybill), the night-time journey that ends with a stay at the Beast's palace and the picking of the rose, Beauty's sacrifice of herself, in order to save her father, and her life with the Beast - although some episodes, such as the one in which Beauty dreams she is riding on the back of a wolf, have been embroidered.

The result is an engaging picture-book that, for all its minor variations, is fairly faithful to the original. The artwork is expressively idiosyncratic, with the Beast depicted as a kind of tusked boar. Although I wouldn't say that the aesthetic style is a personal favorite, I did really appreciate the fact that the pages are multi-colored - that is to say, each page is a different color: blue, orange, green, purplish - as the overall effect reminded me of Baum's The Road to Oz, the original 1909 edition of which had a similar design. All in all, an interesting version of a favorite story, one that fairy-tale lovers, and fans of the artist, will enjoy perusing. ( )

Appropriate for grades K-2. Children in kindergarten and first grade would need this read to them, but second graders could read it on their own. Mordicai Gerstein retells and illustrates the classic tale of Beauty and The Beast.
Uses in classroom:
1. as a read aloud in traditional literature unit
2. get children thinking about the text by:
-making connections to other trad. lit. texts
-making connections to themselves
-finding the moral lesson in the story
-comparing and contrasting characters