The Singing Ringing Tree

A prince seeks the Singing Ringing Tree to please a vain and selfish princess so she will marry him, but the quest is dangerous and results in great misery for both before true love puts everything to rights.

Grade 2-5 A magical tree with leaves of tinkling glass appears as a motif in Eastern European tales, and here it is adapted into a smoothly-written folk tale with novel episodes. A handsome prince, performing a task demanded by an arrogant princess, procures the fabled Singing Ringing Tree from a devilish dwarf. When his gift fails to win the love of the princess, he is forced, with her, into servitude in the dwarf's kingdom. There the prince is transformed into a great black bear and the princess becomes ugly. It is not until her arrogance melts into compassion that the spell is broken. Brierley's bordered pictures feature a surrealistic landscape in pale colors, people with mysteriously elongated, highly stylized figures. It is hard to distinguish facial expressions, which makes it difficult to satisfy curiosity about the princess' ugliness. The soft coloring makes the book a poor choice for group reading, but the moral of the redemptive power of true love will appeal to middle-grade readers who enjoy fantasy in picture book format. Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This tale, credited as possibly taken from Slavic folklore, reveals the fate of a prince who has the misfortune to fall in love with a beautiful, scornful princess. Although he succeeds in fulfilling her request to bring her the Singing Ringing Tree, she breaks her promise to marry him. A dwarf who had bet on that outcome imprisons the would-be lovers in his land: the prince becomes a bear and the princess grows ugly. She is cured of her selfishness by the bear's unfailing kindness, and when she declares her love for him, the dwarf's spell is broken. Brierley's elongated figures and angular perspectives create an eccentric elegance for Hastings's haunting, gentle telling. Less familiar than many of its fairy tale cousins, The Singing Ringing Tree is a beautiful old story, of apocalyptic events measured against the redemptive power of love. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.