5 stars
First Sentence: All the people in the world tell nursery tales to their children.
Thoughts: Another colorful collection of tales from around the world, this time mainly from Japan, Serbia, Denmark, Sweden, and Catalonia.
We begin with the Japanese stories. There are two tales of tanuki here! How cu…
What in the name of Super Mario is that? That is not a raccoon dog! Mr. H.J. Ford, I suggest you consult a live model for your illustrations because that…thing…is nothing close to Japan’s most adorable creature.
Fortunately there are also tales of Japanese cats, which are something that Ford can draw.
What a good kitty Gon is. Who’s an adorable little murderer? You are!
There are a couple of stories where witches get so angry they burst into flints. Not flames, flints. One story features an illustration of the witch throwing a tantrum at the hero and heroine while her pets watch.
She may be a horrible witch to the humans in the story, but her pets seem to like her.
One of these heroes who faces a witch is a young prince looking for a wife, as most of them are. He visits Princess Diaphana, but quickly realizes she’s not The One. Mainly because she’s so light the slightest breeze will throw her around. She forgot to tie herself down before a thunderstorm and ended up blown against a haystack.
Perhaps the iron shoes from the original version of “Snow White” would be of use here?
Finally, we get a story about a striga, although she’s not called that. She’s pretty much the same thing, though. A princess dies but comes back as a monster haunting the local church. A soldier stays in the church three nights to break the spell and win the resurrected princess as his bride. It’s not quite as exciting as the intro to the first Witcher game, but it has a happier ending.
The Eclectic Reviewer 