Phantom of the Opera

Gaston Leroux's classic horror tale of the Paris Opera house brings readers the story of the Phantom of the Opera. When the Christine Daae began at the Opera house, she had little talent. When the Phantom fell in love with her, he began to give her singing lessons that turned her into a star. The lessons had a price, however. Learn what the price was in the Calico Illustrated Classics adaptation of Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.

Gr 5-8-Fields has taken the original story and made it more approachable to younger and reluctant readers, losing none of the Dickensian drama. The characters are true to the original tale as are the plot and its development. McWilliam's whimsical cartoon artwork illustrates the key moments in the story and heightens its emotions and situations. Kelly does an adequate job of adapting the Dumas classic. The original is a rich, extravagant story about political intrigue, deception, history, and drama. All of the main players are here, but readers need to be familiar with The Three Musketeers in order to understand who the characters are and how they have grown. The language, sentence structure, and limited vocabulary make this appropriate for the middle grades and will introduce children to this literary classic. Unfortunately, while Lacey's illustrations provide a break for the eye at certain points in the narrative, they fail to capture the pageantry and drama of the period. In Phantom, Mullarkey uses simple vocabulary and sentence structure without losing Leroux's drama, horror, and suspense. The principal characters' roles, capacities, and importance are in no way diminished, but some parts of the story that have the most action and drama (e.g., the chandelier falling or the masquerade ball) aren't illustrated. Fisher's cartoonish art belies the dark, serious side of the story and oversimplifies some of its key points.-Robert A. Zupperoli, Warren Harding High School, Bridgeport, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.