Day 1: Trina Schart Hyman in Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children's Books

Trina Schart Hyman was one of the illustrators featured in the Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children's Books exhibit. You can read more about her on Wikipedia at Trina Schart Hyman and at Women Children's Book Illustrators.

Hyman died in 2004--it doesn't seem that long ago--too early from breast cancer. Alas, many of her books are going out of print as a result. Her Caldecott honors are staying strong however. Most of the displayed artwork was close to print size and ready for typesetting, very demonstrative of her careful skill and measurements as well as the era the books were produced. The images below are the originals that appeared on the walls of the exhibit, mostly watercolors on boards. Beautiful with a style all her own obviously influenced by many Golden Age illustrators, especially Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Charles Robinson, N. C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Jessie Willcox Smith. I was thrilled to see the original work for books I've owned for many years. They should be clickable to see slightly larger than how they appear below.

From Little Red Riding Hood

From Little Red Riding Hood

From Little Red Riding Hood

From Rapunzel

From Rapunzel

From The Sleeping Beauty: Silver Anniversary Edition

From The Sleeping Beauty: Silver Anniversary Edition

From Saint George and the Dragon

The books featured were:

   

Other personal favorites of Hyman's fairy tale work not featured here are:

   

  

The noncover images are property of the exhibition website.

About Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children's Books

Last week I headed south with my husband and parents to explore several cities including some museum visits. We planned five museums but only got to visit four since the last and final one was closed when we arrived despite listings stating otherwise. One of the museums we visited was the Mobile Museum of Art where Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children's Books was on display. It's still on display this week according to the break down schedule although it officially closed yesterday. The exhibit's continuing schedule is as follows:

January 28 - March 27, 2011

City of Lake Charles

Lake Charles, Louisiana

April 24 - June 19, 2011

The Haggin Museum

Stockton, California

July 10-September 15, 2011

Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan

November 4-December 9, 2011

Selby Gallery/Ringling School of Art & Design

Sarasota, Florida

Here's a description from the exhibition company:

Fairy Tales offer a magic carpet ride, to a timeless, enchanted, dreamlike world. The origins and history of fairy tales reaches back to ancient times. These magical stories were told and retold by storytellers in civilizations of China, Egypt and India. Women recounted the stories from generation to generation. Often the heroine was given magical powers and miraculous rescues. For years the stories were told to adults to uplift them from the world of drudgery by sharing a glimpse of another land. Before these spoken tales became recorded narratives, the details of the stories were modified in the retelling over centuries. The fairy tales and folk tales featured in the exhibit celebrate stories handed down through the ages that echo the wisdom of past cultures and honor the symbolic and metaphoric language of the stories. Traditional stories such as: The Firebird, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood will be included. Along with modern versions such as Cinderella's Dress, Child of the Faerie: Child of the Earth and the Hungry Coat. Prize winning contemporary artists whose art is featured include: Kinuko Y. Craft, Trina Schart Hyman, Barry Moser, Demi, Susan Paradis, Marilee Heyer, Jane Dyer and Jim LaMarche.

Curated by Sylvia Nissley

Contents: Fifty-nine original illustrations and educational materials

The exhibit is small, 59 pieces is not as large as it may sound. But I am very happy I saw it.  One of the museum employees told me it has been very successful and a big draw for school groups which of course made me happy. I also want to praise the museum itself which was lovely and one of our favorites of the trip. The artwork is displayed beautifully in it and the curators onsite with the permanent collections are talented and think a little outside the box for the normal museum, especially a smaller one, with some excellent lighting and display choices.  We were all very impressed. It was also the cleanest museum I have ever visited. Not that museums are dirty but there can be a tinge of grunge to many and this one positively sparkled on a rainy day.

Anyway, I wanted to highlight each of the eight illustrators in the exhibit for those who may not have a chance to visit it at one of its upcoming locations. The beauty of the work is that beautiful reproductions are just a library or bookstore away.  (Or if you are me, you can turn around and pull several of them off your shelves.) Still, I relished seeing the details of the execution that don't always translate into the books. So for the next eight days I will feature each of the illustrators and their work.

Free for a Short Time: Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson is currently free in the Kindle store.  This is a recent release which I posted about previously, a Sleeping Beauty retelling from a Christian publisher. I'm not sure how long this will be free so grab it while you can. It may be a day or a week or just a few hours. 

Description from publisher:

Two Hearts. One Hope. Rose has been appointed as a healer's apprentice at Hagenheim Castle, a rare opportunity for a woodcutter's daughter like her. While she often feels uneasy at the sight of blood, Rose is determined to prove herself capable. Failure will mean returning home to marry the aging bachelor her mother has chosen for her---a bloated, disgusting merchant who makes Rose feel ill. When Lord Hamlin, the future duke, is injured, it is Rose who must tend to him. As she works to heal his wound, she begins to understand emotions she's never felt before and wonders if he feels the same. But falling in love is forbidden, as Lord Hamlin is betrothed to a mysterious young woman in hiding. As Rose's life spins toward confusion, she must take the first steps on a journey to discover her own destiny.

Kirkus Reviews also posted a favorable review:

In this debut romance set in Hagenheim, Lower Saxony, in 1382 and loosely based on 'Sleeping Beauty,' a lowly woodcutter's daughter apprenticed to the town healer falls in love with a handsome nobleman who's betrothed to a mysterious woman. Although she's grateful to the healer for teaching her to read and write and freeing her from the need to marry, 17-year-old Rose quickly loses her heart when she meets Wilhelm, Lord Hamlin. Wilhelm's equally smitten, but he's promised to a woman he's never met and can't wed until he captures the evil conjurer whose threats forced her parents to hide her 17 years ago. When Wilhelm's carousing younger brother insistently woos Rose, she feels flattered but conflicted. Should she forget both brothers and remain single, or could there be a fairy-tale finale? The medieval German setting and fastidious details of period clothing, food, music and dance provide an ideal context for this courtly romance between two young lovers who choose duty, virtue and honor above self-interest. Female readers should savor this romantic fare.

As always, you don't have to have a Kindle to read a Kindle book, you can load the free software on your PC, Mac, smart phone and other devices. If you buy the book, it stays in your permanent library whether you download it to a device right away or not.


And here are links to the print version if you prefer: The Healer's Apprentice.

PS: It also appears to be free for Nook owners. Here's a link.  (The Amazon links are affiliate links but the B&N is not.)

Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets by Francesca Lia Block

Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets (Bind Up) by Francesca Lia Block is a newly released compendium of earlier works by Block including Psyche in a Dress, Echo, and The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold. I am mostly familiar with The Rose and the Beast which is compiled of fairy tale retellings.

Description from the publisher:

What happens when a girl finds herself at the crossroads between worlds—where the angels and ghosts, gods and demons, and beauties and beasts of myth are real? What does she do and who does she become?

Roses and Bones captures the best Francesca Lia Block has to offer: extravagantly imaginative tales, dark landscapes, fierce poetry, and storytelling that is nothing short of magical.

In my experience, Block tends to be in the "love her or hate her" category of authors. Her style and content is her own.

The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold was first released when I was working as a children's/YA librarian in Burbank. I read it then and added it to our YA section even before reading it. My memories with it have almost nothing to do with fairy tales however, for it was the only book I had briefly challenged by an adult reader as unsuitable for YA. This was not common in the Los Angeles area and my initial reaction was not professional, alas.  A short burst of laughter/noise erupted from me before I could control myself. I honestly don't remember what else I said to the patron for I was too shocked at my initial outburst--I am not usually a reactionary person if you know me--and surprised by the challenge.  Yes, this book has sexual content but it does not glorify any of it in any way.  If anything, it makes it distasteful. This was during the time when YA books were erupting with much more graphic and gratuitous sexual encounters and I little expected this book to be the one challenged.  After all, it was sitting right next to the Gossip Girl series which was chock full of gratuitous everything with pretty much no redeeming qualities.  However, I think it was one that an adult would pick up thanks to its cover (that gorgeous cover which I will include below) and fairy tale allusions, so that made sense when I considered it all later. They certainly weren't looking at the more obviously YA covers and storylines which hid much more risque content that I myself debated for the average YA reader I knew at the time.

Anyway, that is my true confessions. I was usually a much better librarian than that, by the way. This is not light reading but it is quick. It may not be what you would want for your YA reader. So be warned.

Here are the original titles collected in this new book:

  

Fairy Tales on the Cybils Awards Short Lists

The short lists for the Cybils Awards have been posted. The Cybils are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. Not surprisingly, three fairy tale titles made the list in three categories.  The 2010 titles include books released between Oct. 16, 2009 and Oct. 15, 2010 so A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz barely missed the cutoff date.  I anticipate it will appear on next year's list since it is getting such great blogger buzz.

But as for this year's short listers, they are:

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade)

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult)

 

The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli. This one probably has the hardest competition from co-nominee Plain Kate by Erin Bow which has also lit up the blogosphere in recent months and is grim (not Grimm however).  It's on my TBR pile. 

Poetry

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer: I have praised this one up and down and am still waiting to see if it receives any honors from the ALA this year, too. It has been nominated several times for several awards so far and I am happy to know it hasn't escaped notice.  A wonderful book...