Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
For readers seeking a weird and haunting autumn read, this fairy tale by Yorinks (Mommy?) and Smith (Circus Train) fits the bill. The opening illustration alone is the stuff of nightmares. A wraithlike woman, clad in a billowing inky-black dress, seems suspended face-down from a branch in an overcast forest of leafless gray trees (she is, apparently, flying). Meet Rosina, a witch who "was powerful and evil and had all there was to have-all but one thing. A child." Never mind Rosina's evident lack of maternal qualities. She crafts a daughter, from "straw and leaves and clumps of her own hair." Yet her spells fail to animate the scarecrow-girl, Rosalie, whose empty eyes and limp body are uncanny in their own right, and when real children play too roughly with the doll, Rosina transforms them into thorn bushes (Smith's images here register high on the spine-shivering scale). Like Sleeping Beauty's vines, the magic shrubs enchant would-be visitors until a compassionate girl wanders in. As the visitor cuddles Rosalie, the witch flies in the window and the doll comes to life with a vengeance; in the violent conclusion, unredeemed Rosina brandishes a butcher knife but falls into the fireplace. Yorinks's measured storytelling raises goosebumps, and Smith's surreal, full-bleed images heighten the suspense. Ages 5-9. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Rosina, a "cruel and absolutely heartless" witch, longs for a child and, on an October night, cobbles one together out of straw, leaves, and "clumps of her own hair." However, despite the woman's powerful spells, Rosalie remains lifeless. One spring day, Rosina sees some children playing in a nearby field and carries her daughter outside, thinking that the interaction might awaken her. But the youngsters handle Rosalie too roughly and the angry witch turns them into "stunted and prickly" bushes and tosses the straw girl next to the dustbin. The following September, Lina, an "inquisitive" child, sneaks into Rosina's house, finds Rosalie, mends her, and gives her "the one thing she never had-the warmth of a loving heart." When Rosina returns and prepares to eat the intruder for dinner, it is Rosalie who saves her, destroying the terrifying witch and setting things to right. Yorinks's flowing language is evocative, and the plot builds steadily to an exciting climax. Smith's detailed paintings depict Rosina with jet-black standing-on-end hair and exaggerated facial features that vividly-and frighteningly-express her emotions. With limp limbs, vacant expression, and leafy hands, Rosalie's appearance is also unsettling, while the images of pleasant-looking, colorfully clothed children being transformed into and out of their dark thorny forms is downright creepy. Although the happy-ever-after ending-illustrated in warm autumn hues-is reassuring, this book is not for the faint of heart. Share it with readers who like truly scary stories.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal (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 Kirkus Book Review
A bit of TLC accomplishes what a mighty witch's powers cannot in this pointed melodrama. When malign Rosina fails to bring Rosalie, the manikin she constructs from leaves and hair, to life, she spitefully puts a spell on her fields that transforms all the local children who play in them into twisted brambles. That spell is only broken after young Lina finds the discarded Rosalie and lovingly repairs her; suddenly animate, Rosalie pulls Lina away from Rosina's vicious attack, and the witch falls into a fire. Lina's parents welcome Rosalie into the family, and all the brambles revert to children whose own parents "were thankful for them and properly cared for them, as," Yorinks concludes, "they should." In his realistic, sharply drawn illustrations, Smith sends a memorably scary-looking, black-clad witch drifting over desolate countryside to work mischief, but renders the children as a multicultural bunch in modern dress--a contrast that should give young readers an extra shiver or two. Pair this with Audrey Wood's Heckedy Peg (1987), illustrated by Don Wood, for an effective fright-fest. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
