East of the Sun and West of the Moon — George Webbe Dasent

K-Gr 4 Barlow has created vibrant watercolor and colored pencil illustrations to accompany the classic George Webbe Dasent translation of this popular Norwegian folk tale. Each full-page illustration and its facing page of text are bordered by two bands of contrasting colorsome marbleized, some lined, some figuredseparated by double lines of sharper colors. These borders both embolden the text and create the effect of looking through the window into the scene. Many of the paintings have a folk art quality about them due to Barlow's simple rendering of people, clothing, and furnishings. Details abound: patterns in clothing and furniture, gnarling of tree branches and detailing of household objects. Of the three individual editions now in print, Barlow's illustrations are neither as ethereal as Michael Hague's (HBJ, 1980) nor as romantic as Mercer Mayer's (Four Winds, 1980), yet it is appealing in its own right. Only Barlow's edition has the original text. Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, Ohio