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jan pienkowski: THE FAIRY TALES


book reviewAlright don't tell my budget or significant other. This was an impulse buy. But the art was too ghoulishly entrancing, my fever too high, the weather crummy, and the date too close to Halloween to pass up this juicy fat hardcover.

Originally I was only going to buy Jan's Haunted House book, a FAVORITE book from my childhood. I'd seen scads of them at Barnes and Noble, but had waited (with martyrlike patience) to buy it at my favorite local bookstore instead. Unfortunately they didn't have it/might not be able to get it.

So I got this amazing fairy tale book instead. With lush black cutouts silhouetted on sumptous eye-popping marbled papers. Dollars to donuts Jan made those marble papers. He's got perky princesses, hairy warted witches, and lots of trailing vines to suck you in.

With illustrations this good I have a hard time even noticing whether the tales are told well. Like Provensen Book of Fairy Tales I've never paid much attention to the text.

provensens.jpg

The illustrations do it for me and I'm happy to make up the story as I go along...NOT that the stories aren't terrifically well written...

Cut me some slack in my feverish coughing sneezing state and let me just look at the pictures.

Thanks,

Jaime



Posted by Jaime Temairik on October 18, 2006 08:11 PM |

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