Dom DeLuise's The Nightingale - Hardcover

Deluise, Dom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689817495 ISBN 13: 9780689817496

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1998

Synopsis

In this retelling of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, a marvelous bird helps King Lucky realize that beauty is directly linked to freedom and it includes recipes for Bird in a Cage of Bread and Court Jester Cookies.

About this title

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 2?In this reworking of Andersen's fairy tale, the fortunes of an isolated kingdom are changed when gold is discovered. Soon the people have built two roads (to Hither and Yon) and a big resort called the "Golden Rainbow." King Lucky should be happy, since he "got richer and richer, and real famous, like Big Time!" But of course, "inside, you know, where it really counts" he isn't happy at all. Only the song of a nightingale can improve his spirits, but the captured bird refuses to sing and its mechanical replacement wears out. Times are tough for the king until the little bird returns and he understands her need to be free. The conversational tone and the crass modernizations detract from the original tale. Santoro's antic watercolors have cartoon charm, but are undistinguished. Two recipes (Bird in a Cage of Bread and Court Jester Cookies) and a version of the nightingale's song can't save this flat offering.?Anne Connor, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Basing his latest effort on the Hans Christian Andersen tale, DeLuise manages to despoil the original work of its mystery and turn it into a platform for ham-handed moralizing (the lessons: the best things in life are free, and feeling happy inside is what really counts). The author spends virtually the first third of the book spinning out an elaborate premise of how a king and his kingdom go from rags to riches; while this provides plenty of fodder for Santoro's exuberant comic talents, there's no reason why this story couldn't have started with everyone already rich. As overstuffed as the book feels, however, it's also missing something?namely, the funny, smart-alecky narrative winks and asides that have given other DeLuise and Santoro collaborations (notably King Bob's New Clothes) a junior version of sophistication. But Santoro's exaggerated characterizations are replete with honkable noses and eyes that might roll as easily as marbles, and few artists can orchestrate the kind of visual wit that brims in his depictions of excess. Two recipes cap the book, and the endpapers offer music, by Shelley Tenzer, for the nightingale's song. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

DeLuise's ode to freedom, a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen classic, has on its side good intentions and little else. A poor but benevolent king discovers a lost, well-endowed gold mine in his kingdom. He becomes rich, an entrepreneur, a resort-builder. All his assets don't make the king ``happy inside,'' where it counts; only the burbling of a nightingale's sweet song delivers that. When the king cages the bird, it will no longer sing. Court craftsmen construct a mechanical bird with a lovely song and the king forgets the real article, which escapes, until the fake breaks. The king becomes ill until the real nightingale returns and restores him to health; the monarch grasps that the best things in life are free. DeLuise plays fast and loose with Andersen's parablethe king builds a Las Vegasstyle resort complex with his newfound wealthand he overstates the elusive ideal of inner peace to degree. Following the story and amiable art, recipes and a song score close the book. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0689817495
• ISBN 13: 9780689817496
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Santoro Christopher
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40