King Midas: A Golden Tale
Grade 1-4-The story of Midas is a prescription we need filled regularly. This version, livelier in text as well as in its graphics than Charlotte and Kinuko Craft's King Midas (Morrow, 1999), takes off from Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book, with its emphasis on the child Marygold. Stewig uses deft, direct language, moving at a faster pace than Craft without any sacrifice of significance. The real lure, however, is the artwork. Rayyan's imagination is playful and sophisticated. The delicately color-washed, light-struck paintings combine an expressionistic, almost cartoonish Midas, beautifully detailed architectural and other allusions to the antique, and a host of whimsically anachronistic touches. Dionysus/Pan is a Klimt-Beardsley hybrid, Midas eats "Plato Poseidon Puffs" for breakfast, and guest appearances by the Frog Prince and a host of mythological minor characters enliven every page. There's also a discreetly hidden plug for the artist's last book, The Ring of Truth (Holiday, 1997). Teasing details require study, but the time spent is repaid by the grace, intelligence, and wit of the artwork.Patricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport, RICopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.