The Crystal Mountain

The youngest of three sons outwits the fairy thieves who stole his mother's tapestry and marries one of the fairies he has rescued.

Grade 1-4-Taking particular strands from a Chinese tale of a magic brocade, detailed threads from a Norwegian story of a glass mountain, and filaments from her own artistic imagination, Sanderson has woven a new fabric, framed in a 15th-century European landscape (a time of extraordinary tapestry making). The stately text incorporates many traditional elements: the three sons of a widowed mother, the apparently feckless youngest son, magical animal aides, a crystal/glass mountain, and a quest fraught with dangers. Opulent oil paintings in lush detail reflect the turns of the story line as they parade in step with the youngest son on his desperate search for the missing tapestry that holds the fantastic landscape of his mother's dreams. And, while the phrase "happily ever after" is never uttered, delighted readers and listeners can rest assured it applies to the comforting conclusion. Match this story with Marilee Heyer's stunning The Weaving of a Dream (Puffin, 1989)-a retelling of the Chinese tale-and Claire Martin's resplendent Boots and the Glass Mountain (Dial, 1992; o.p.)-a retelling of the Norse story-and you will have both a rich visual experience and the unique opportunity to trace newly interwoven story lines to more original sources. Sumptuous.
Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A retelling of the Chinese legend of the magic brocade, here set in 15th-century Europe, combined with elements from the Norwegian tale about the princess and the glass hill. It's the story of three brothers and their mother, Anna, who weaves a magnificent tapestry that is subsequently stolen by the Fairies of the Crystal Mountain. When the first two sons fail to recover the tapestry, third and youngest Perrin succeeds at three impossible tasks that gain him passage to the palace. There, he rescues his mother's tapestry with the help of the Red Fairy, who becomes his true love. Sanderson keeps the happily-ever-after ending intact, sparing the brothers the harsh punishment of the original version. The artist's rendition of Anna's ideal weaving mirrors the intricate unicorn tapestries of the Middle Ages, replete with endless paradisiacal gardens, lovely creatures, and pomegranate trees. Sanderson's lush, detailed oil paintings are perfectly suited to the theater of fairy tale, where blood red bays may be summoned by a whistle's trill, and heroes climb mountains of crystal to reach palaces inhabited by velvet-clothed princesses. (Picture book/folklore. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Sanderson combines elements from the Chinese story "The Magic Brocade" and the Norwegian tale "Princess on the Glass Hill" in this seamless, stately picture book for older readers. Anna, whose brocades are known far and wide, awakens one night knowing she must weave what she saw in her dream. For nearly three years, she is driven by her vision of a marble mansion set among orchards, hills, and streams, but when her tapestry is complete, the winds of the fairies of the crystal mountain steal it. Anna's three sons go, one at a time, to rescue the dream tapestry. It is the third one, persevering the fiery plain and the icy sea, who finally climbs the crystal mountain where the fairies hold his mother's life work. He retrieves it, but a red-and-gold fairy embroiders herself into its threads. When the young man arrives home and unfurls the tapestry, it shimmers into life, as does the fairy. The beautiful oil paintings are rich with medieval allusion and full of flora, fauna, and details--a lion's head on a horse's trappings, the lace of a fairy wing--that engage the eye again and again. The complex ending, a bit more than happily ever after, will give young readers something additional to think about. GraceAnne A. DeCandido