Mary Jane Begin

The famous German story of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, immortalized by Goethe in his 1797 poem, Der Zauberlehrling, is here retold in picture-book form by American author and artist Mary Jane Begin. In her telling, a young girl becomes the apprentice to a great and good sorcerer, but is discouraged by all of the manual labor she must perform, and impatient to learn actual magic. When the sorcerer leaves for town one day, and the girl finds her chores too much to endure, she uses a spell to enchant the household broom, commanding it to fetch water for her. But she soon discovers that, while she may be able to use magic, she is not yet able to control it...

Published in 2005, Begin's The Sorcerer's Apprentice is the third picture-book retelling of this tale that I have read, following upon the ones done by Dutch author/artist Gerda Muller, and American author/illustrator team Nancy Willard and Leo and Diane Dillon. Although I don't think it was quite as impressive as those other two tellings, I still found it engaging, enjoying (as always) the story of a student who loses control of his or her magic, with disastrous results (beloved picture-book, Strega Nona, is another exampled of this entertaining tale type). The artwork here, done in acrylics on pastel paper, utilizes a beautiful color palette, and features lovely decorative borders, although the faces seemed somehow stiff and overly emotional at the same time. Despite that quibble, this is one I recommend to young folk and fairy-tale fans, especially if, like me, they enjoy looking at different tellings of the same tale. If they can only track down one version however, I'd recommend getting either the Muller or Willard/Dillons version instead.… (meer)