Review by Booklist Review
Ages 4^-8. This emperor lived "long ago in a province in China," but his vanity and fondness for clothes doom him to the well-known humiliation. Demi's retelling, with a skillful use of repeated phrases, is compact and competent. Her familiar gold-burnished paintings portray small human figures against expansive backgrounds, some on foldout pages. The penultimate picture reveals a larger portrait of the emperor in his dragon-print underwear and the painfully observant child. Wallpaper scenes depict such activities as a dragon parade and silk production, while a paneled screen displays 39 images with an explanation of what that object represents in Chinese art. Unfortunately, the screen dominates the double-page spread and interrupts the story. In an appended note, Demi adds more information about Chinese art and culture. An attractive supplementary variant, this adds a multicultural dimension to the popular Andersen story. --Linda Perkins
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in old China, Demi's (The Nightingale) adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic is as opulent as the vain emperor himself might wish for, with lots of gold ink and five foldout panels. The lean text supports the art but does not compete with it, leaving readers free to lose themselves in Demi's beguiling panoramas. As the artist explains in an endnote, her paintings incorporate traditional Chinese symbols, particularly those of purity and virtue. Readers will want to go back and scrutinize the details so harmoniously worked into each painting, from the elaborate patterns on the characters' clothing to background scenes of the springtime weaving of silk and the summertime flying of kites. The foldouts, however, are a disappointmentÄmost of them interrupt rather than extend Demi's compositions. The exception is a climactic double gatefold spread chronicling the scowling emperor, dressed only in a gold undershirt and red undershorts adorned with the image of a dragon, as he stubbornly marches through the countryside in his new "garments." The more closely kids look, the more they will find. Ages 7-10. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Although Andersen's name does not appear in this book, it is a simple retelling of his classic tale. Demi's double-page illustrations are graceful and well designed and are executed in vivid colors, including gold. The pictures are filled with frolicsome children, animals, and birds; the backgrounds depict activities that symbolically relate to heaven, purity, and virtue such as weaving silk, the dragon dance, and kite flying. Several delicate gatefolds add little to the visual flow of the story, though toward the end of the tale, a pair of double fold-out pages of the emperor walking through the province in his amusing dragon-decorated boxers does provide a lovely four-page spread. Naomi Lewis's recent picture-book retelling (Candlewick, 1997), with illustrations by Angela Barrett, is more successful at conveying the irony and wit of the tale. Still, this is an elegant, colorful version of the old story.-Marilyn Iarusso, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) Yes, this is the familiar Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, though only the jacket credits him for the ""original Danish story."" Demi's retelling is lucid, graceful, and true to Andersen's story line. His verbal elaboration, however, is replaced here by her sumptuous illustrations-which place the story in China. Fair enough: Andersen himself set ""The Nightingale"" in the Chinese Emperor's court. In her signature style, Demi's figures are delicately outlined; they are painted with flat, jewel-like colors and metallic gold and set against subtly patterned grounds that resemble silk damask. Close examination reveals many touches of humor, especially in the facial expressions, though none of those inside the book are as broad or as funny as the delightfully caricatured Emperor on the jacket, aghast to find himself disrobed and entwining himself modestly in his own arms and legs. The several fold-out pages don't add much: except for the four-page gatefold spread in which the scantily clad Emperor parades before his tactful subjects (he keeps a modicum of decency by wearing red socks and royal-looking underwear), none of the foldouts results in a continuous scene of more than two pages. But that's only a cavil to a lovely and meticulously wrought rendition. The author's note offers a brief explanation of some of the Chinese symbols incorporated in the art. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Demi sets her brief version of the Hans Christian Andersen chestnut in provincial Old China, suspending stout officials, gracefully gesturing onlookers, livestock, wild animals, and drifts of flowers, all drawn in ultra-fine detail, against backgrounds that seem limitlessly deep. The costumes are gorgeous, all vivid red, blue, and gold--even the Imperial undershorts, decorated with a sinuous dragon, are magnificent (children hoping for a naked emperor will be disappointed; steer them toward Anne Rockwell's rendition of the tale). Though neither the verbal nor visual narrative is much enhanced by most of the five foldouts, they do make the book all the more grandly sumptuous. Demi scatters traditional Chinese symbols of purity, keyed in an afterword, throughout, and if the Emperor is left looking more annoyed than chastened by that pesky child's eye-opening observation, it will still be plain to all readers that he understands who in his province is the biggest fool. (Picture book. 7-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
