The Golden Key: A Victorian Fairy Tale

George MacDonald's beloved Victorian fairy tale The Golden Key is lavishly illustrated with forty-eight pictures in scratchboard by children's book artist Ruth Sanderson, winner of the Texas Bluebonnet award for The Golden Mare, The Firebird, and the Magic Ring. The book includes an afterward by author Jane Yolen and an illustrator's note by Sanderson. This is a new edition of the book published in 2016 by Eerdman's Books for Young Readers.

George MacDonald (1824-1925) was a Scottish author and clergyman. He wrote many stories for children, and his work has inspired authors such as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L'Engle. In addition to writing The Golden Key, his stories for children include At The Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, and The Princess and Curdie.

A graduate of the Paier College of Art in Connecticut, Ruth Sanderson's children's book career spans over 40 years and 90+ books for children, including numerous fairytale retellings, such as The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Cinderella, Goldilocks, and The Snow Princess. Ruth has worked in oils, watercolor, gouache, and other media, but her current favorite medium is scratchboard. The Golden Key, a Victorian fairytale by George MacDonald, features over forty of her scratchboard illustrations. Her award-winning art has been included in exhibitions at museums and galleries around the country, and her artwork was featured at the Norman Rockwell Museum in a solo exhibition in 2014.