Brian Froud's Faeries' tales

Faeries are both the subject and the framing device of this new offering from husband-and-wife team Brian and Wendy Froud. As with Trolls (2012), the goal is to excavate a deeper world of faeries and to present their voices in words and art. The conceit is that the two creators were tasked by a family of Duster faeries (they dust off memories, of course) to retell faerie stories from the perspectives of the faeries themselves. And so they do, creating portraits and stories that will be familiar to readers, such as Cinderella's godmother, Tinkerbell, and leprechauns, as well as tales for those sprites less widely known: Tam Lin's lover, Red Caps, and Churnmilk Peg. Froud's illustrations are big and bold (as is the design for this book) and range from lovely ("The Dream Catcher") to playful ("Puck") to downright creepy ("Here's Looking at You"). Sure to please existing fans of the Froud team, this also works as a conversation-starting coffee-table book for browsers. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Gr 9 Up—This elegant presentation of well-known and more obscure fairy tales from the point of view of the fairies combines the mysterious and magical with cold calculation and complexity: successful ingredients for sophisticated readers. The authors whimsically present the perspectives of the different fairies, thus revealing their thoughts and motivations. Breaking up the first-person accounts is a story about the little Duster fairies, which gives structure and ongoing focus. This treatment puts all the stories in a different light and makes fresh and new even the most well-known tales, such as "Tam Lin," "Cinderella," and "Sleeping Beauty," as well as the lesser known fairies, such as Moon Dancer, the King's Knight, Alyssa the Changeling-Maker, and the Shadow Man. The art is rich with deep colors, intricate borders, fanciful sketches, and searching portraits, creating a background for the humorous, romantic, sad, or dangerous tales. The last section includes documentation, which will be a solid resource for readers who want the authors' source materials and suggestions. VERDICT The Frouds' quality work is so well known and popular that this title will be a welcome addition to the genre.—Nancy Call, Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Aptos, CA [Page 127]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Presents selections of fairy artwork from the celebrated painter, providing histories of each fairy as told by the fairies themselves.

Following in the footsteps of Trolls, Brian and Wendy Froud lead readers deep into the world of faeries. Humans throughout history have always had special relationships and bonds with faeries, whether loving and helpful or at times destructive. This new book explores that complex relationship and the liminal state between the human and faery world where interaction occurs.In Brian Froud's Faeries' Tales, readers encounter individual faeries, each with a story to uncover, as told by the faeries themselves. Many of the stories are familiar to humans, but the 'true' story is told by the faeries. Similar to the Trolls fragments, the faeries' tales are coupled with portraits and interspersed with drawings and studies of the mysterious and enchanting folk who travel back and forth between the human world and theirs.