Books For Keeps
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Latest Issue
  • Authors and Artists
  • Latest News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
May 3, 2007/in Fiction 8-10 Junior/Middle /by Angie Hill
BfK Rating:
BfK 164 May 2007
Reviewer: Clive Barnes
ISBN: 978-1844287208
Price: £25.46
Publisher: Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noonGuaranteed packagingNo quibbles returns
Genre: Fiction
Age Range: 8-10 Junior/Middle
Length: 64pp
  • Abridged by: Max Eilenberg
Buy the Book

Beauty and the Beast

Illustrator: Angela Barrett

Once more Angela Barrett has produced her own vision of a well-loved tale. As the story begins, costume and décor place it firmly in the comfortable middle-class world of the middle of the nineteenth century and, in an impressive snow bound double spread, we see the merchant approach the Beast’s palace as if it were a magnificent stately home set in its own parkland, complete with Mock Gothic fairy-tale turrets. Yet, once within the palace, time dissolves and the real fairy tale takes over. Apparently solid walls are drapes on which woodland scenes are painted. Beauty and her father dine in a vast hall lit by candelabra of strange animal and human shapes. The Beast himself is both feline and serpentine, solid and hairy, and yet a creature of shadow. The illustrations are sometimes misty and indistinct, as if in half-light, and then suddenly and strikingly solid. Colour drains from the pictures, as the merchant, then Beauty, then the Beast, languish in loneliness but then bursts through in the heart’s blood of the roses. The illustrations are so beguiling that I became impatient with those pages where the text pushed them to the edge, but that is unfair to Max Eilenberg, whose retelling is perfectly paced and gives Beauty’s father a character that is engagingly foolish and fond. Still, it is Barrett’s vision that demands attention.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png 0 0 Angie Hill http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Angie Hill2007-05-03 12:29:432023-03-03 12:34:31Beauty and the Beast

Search for a specific review

Author Search

Search







Generic filters




Filter by Member Types


Book Author

Download BfK Issue Bfk 271 March 2025
Skip to an Issue:

About Us

Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.

Read More

Follow Us

Latest News

Next stop Shakespeare’s Globe – finalists of Poetry By Heart competition 2025 announced

May 8, 2025

School Library Association announces Information Book Award longlist and new nationwide Book Club

May 7, 2025

National Share-a-Story Month 2025: Saving the World, One Book at a Time

May 2, 2025

Contact Us

Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT

Telephone: 0780 789 3369

ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).

© Copyright 2025 - Books For Keeps | Proudly Built by Lemongrass Media - Web Design Buckinghamshire
The Inventors How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock lll
Scroll to top