Word: tales
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There are illustrators and illustrators. But there is only one Maurice Sendak. His drawings for Grimm fairy tales and his million-copy bestseller, Where the Wild Things Are (1963), unfolded the primary metaphors of dreams; In the Night Kitchen (1970) fused Walt Disney, Laurel and Hardy, the comic strips of Winsor McCay and the reassuring images of bread and bed; Outside Over There (1981), the story of an airborne young heroine, had the enchanting quality of classical ballet. After that, Sendak's interests turned to the stage, and he designed the sets and costumes for Leos Janacek...
...Testament story seems retold as often as the episode of Jonah swallowed whole (there are strong suggestions of it in works as disparate as Pinocchio and Jaws). But somehow Warwick Hutton has found a way of giving the tale a fresh approach in Jonah and the Great Fish (Atheneum; $12.95). The text is simplified but not simpleminded, and if the sins have been scaled down, the sinner has not. As Jonah and his shipmates are buffeted by the tempest, the wind seems to blow from the page, and the great fish that consumes him soon turns from a monster into...
Much is different about the new--though actually old--Nutcracker. Hoffmann's tale is at once a lavishly detailed children's story as fine as any Grim effort and a fascinating narrative reminiscent of a Pushkin tale...
...puff setting, we appreciate the somber purity and beauty that Hoffmann so prizes. Only a hopeless romantic could create a nutcracker who addresses his lady in "a little bell like voice: Dear sweet Marie. Protectress mine. Thou standest by me and I'll be thine." And within the bizarre tale of Marie's adventures, Hoffmann revels in the sweetness and sensitivity of kind and imaginative children. His careful touch in relating the wonders of things as majestic as first love is something akin to a perfectly crafted music boy issuing soft strains of Mozart...
...songs and the one-liners, it would be remiss to lose sight of the underlying message of Godspell -- reminding us that the gospel and parables reach important lessons about human nature and just behavior towards our fellow man. Yet is by no means a moralistic lesson, but rather a tale of people, their problems, and their faith...