The Fisherman and His Wife

A nicely ironic image beautifully executed, making this offering fresh and welcome.

It's a handsome book, and the tale sits comfortably in its new setting.

The highly patterned collage pictures don’t really capture the scope of her ambitions, which seem more European than African, but their shaped and sculptured beauty is arresting.

K-Gr 4 - As she did with "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and "The Princess and the Pea" (both Putnam, 2007), Isadora has taken a tale of European origin and set it against a generic African backdrop, with no country, tribe, or culture specified. This is problematic as such treatment does nothing to enlighten children about the rich diversity that exists on this vast continent. This is a separate issue from the quality of Isadora's illustrations, which meet her usual standards. Using oil paints, printed paper, and palette paper, she has created dramatic, textured collages, intense in color and rich in detail. The spreads reflect an increasingly dark and angry sea as the wife's demands become more and more outrageous. The text is spare and minimal, with none of the lyrical language found in other retellings, such as Randall Jarrell's classic (Farrar, 1980; o.p.) with breathtaking illustrations by Margot Zemach. Younger readers may find this version more accessible, but all of the drama is in the art."Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ"

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