The Light Princess

A curse causes a princess to have no gravity, but the help of a prince brings her back down to earth.

Kindergarten-Grade 4The long-awaited princess, a newborn only child, is cursed at her christening by an uninvited disgruntled outrageous guest. The curse: lightness of body and spirit. The princess is given to uncontrollable floating and merri ment. The cure is love, which makes her cry and brings her down to earth. McKinley has cut approximately two thirds of MacDonald's 19th-Century fairy tale, keeping the spirit, grace, and wit of the original. She also keeps the king's inane Chinese philosophers, Hum-Drum and Kopy-Keck, MacDon ald's tasteless but harmless creations whose worst fault is that theirs is the section of the story that children skip over and forgetthey are truly, deeply boring; mercifully, here they are cut to a minimum. Treherne's buoyant, styl ized, full-page, full-color watercolors are reminiscent of Errol LeCain's. In tricate borders pick up a minor pattern in each picture and frame it with stun ning effect. Nothing much has been done with this classic since Maurice Sendak (Farrar, 1969) illustrated it with wonderful tongue-in-cheek formality. This new edition brings a younger gen eration a charming combination of tal ent.Helen Gregory, Grosse Pointe Public Library, Mich.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

McKinley's deft adaptation trims the story without sacrificing the witty vitality of MacDonald's 19th century original. The story of a bewitched princess (gravity does not affect her) and the prince who will sacrifice his life for her is presented in a lavishly illustrated package. Treherne's intensely decorative drawings add a striking visual dimension: her use of rich colors and elegantly stylized figures creates a romantic, mysterious mood. Each picture is bordered by a motif that emphasizes an element of the story, which effectively enhances both text and pictures. All ages.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.