Phillipa Pearce, a British author best known for her 1958 Carnegie Medal-winning children's novel, Tom's Midnight Garden, here adapts the classic French fairy-tale of Beauty and the Beast, offering a simplification of Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont's version that is approximately one half the length (according to the author's own afterword) of the original. Her narrative covers all the major elements, and is engagingly well-told, although a little text-heavy for a picture-book. Unfortunately, the accompanying gouache artwork by Alan Barrett is drearily uninspiring: blurry, monochromatic, and unappealing.

This definitely won't be going on any "favorite fairy-tale adaptations" list, which is a shame, since the text is moderately engaging. I understand that it has been reprinted, with artwork by James Mayhew - perhaps that edition is more appealing? In any case, despite my disappointment in the book (I was terribly excited when I discovered that the author of Tom's Midnight Garden, which I adored as a girl, had written a version of Beauty and the Beast), I did appreciate the author's extended afterword about her sources. Mention is made of the version written by Mme. de Villeneuve, as well as that penned by Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont, and a lingering question I had, about whether Straparola had written the original Beauty and the Beast (no, he didn't, although he wrote a similar tale about a pig prince) was answered. Onward with my Beauty and the Beast project! ( )