The art was beautiful but sadly the writing was not. ( )

British author/illustrator team Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb turn their attention to the classic French fairy-tale of Beauty and the Beast in this gorgeous picture-book. The narrative follows the traditional story-line for the tale - a merchant in impoverished circumstances steals a rose from a mysterious Beast, and his daughter must agree to take his place as a prisoner in the Beast's palace - while the artwork is a beautiful mixture of silhouettes and vibrantly colorful accents and figures.

Already being familiar with author Ursula Jones' three picture-books about the children of a witch (The Witch's Children, The Witch's Children and the Queen, The Witch's Children Go to School), I was curious to see what she would do with a more traditional fairy-tale. Overall, I found the text of Beauty and the Beast engaging and readable. That said, it was the illustrations - this is my first experience with the work of artist Sarah Gibb - that really stood out to me. The silhouettes reminded me a bit of the work of such figures as Arthur Rackham and Jan Pienkowski, while the more colorful elements made a lovely contrast to the black of those silhouettes. I will definitely try to track down more of Gibb's books! Recommended to all young fairy-tale lovers, especially those with a soft spot for retellings of Beauty and the Beast. ( )

FAIRY TALES, BELLE, BEAST, SCHOOL AGE

Loved the illustrations in this retelling of Beauty and the Beast. On the cover, the leaves in the trees catch the light with their metallic gold glint. The pictures make me think Victorian France - but thats just my impression and probably not accurate. Some pictures are black silhouette; others full color. Very straight forward retelling - nothing particularly different in the story aside from the gorgeous illustrations. Includes the details about the sisters demanding dresses and jewels in contrast to Beauty's request for a flower. (fairy tales, belle, beast, school age, preschool)

Review at Amazon from SLJ: http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Beast-Ursula-Jones/dp/0807506001 ( )

I really enjoyed this book. Beauty and the Beast is a classic and this book did an amazing job at keeping the classic storyline, while adding a modern twist through the pictures. Although the storyline was a bit different than the classic Beauty and the Beast storyline that I remember, for the most part it was the same. I like that some changes were made because it shows readers that stories can be told many different ways. However, overall it was the same and the changes were minor and insignificant to the general storyline. My favorite part of this book was the pictures. They were very detailed and depicted many different things happening all at once. For example, when they are eating dinner, the food, candles, and decorations on the table are all detailed and bright, which makes the page engaging. I also found the pictures on this page engaging because the people’s shadows appeared on the walls behind them, which set a tone and showed that the room was dark. This was interesting to be because I think it also had to do with how the characters were feeling. For example, in the story, Belle and the Beast were confused about how they felt about each other at this point in the story. The darkness in the room definitely contributed to the characters feelings and added to the storyline. On another page, I liked how the pictures displayed Belle in many different dresses. With the words on the page, we learn that this was showing Belle over a period of time. That is why her dresses changed and it showed her time and time again, but the Beast still asking the same question, “will you marry me?” I loved this book and really enjoyed the pictures. The main idea was to tell the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast a little bit differently. ( )

Beauty and the Beast was my favorite story growing up and still is, so reading a different version of it was such a treat for me. Beauty and the Beast is about a young poor girl who stumbles upon a magical castle where every object inside talks and the master of the castle is a beast. Through developing a friendship, and eventually falling in love with the beast, the spell on the castle is broken and everyone is returned to their natural forms. Te beast, who once had horrible manners, learns to love himself and return to being humble. The moral of this story is not to judge people on how they look, and love unconditionally no matter the circumstance. ( )