Helpful Score: 3
This is my favorite retelling of the Beauty and the Beast and one of my favorite books. This is Robin's first book and she wrote this before everyone else started rewriting fairy tales. This book has a charm I find delicious as Beauty's heart thaws towards the Beast! My other favorite of Robin's is "The Blue Sword". I do not care much for her other works.
Helpful Score: 2
This was a fantastic retelling of the Beauty & the Beast story. With plenty of mysterious things going on, and strange happenings in their lives. The merchant's family, as the story would predict, loses everything and moves to the impoverished country side. To take up a small iron crafter that this town has been without for better than 3 yrs, and it's growing desperate, not just for horse shoeing, but for many other types of metal fixing. The father even starts tinkering with his old hobby/craft of woodworking, to the point that the have to enlarge the tiny closet/room that he had been working in.
And as the story predicts, the father runs on a mission, gets lost in a snow storm, winds up a the Beast's castle, which has invisible servants, all that a king would hope to have. After a refreshing nights sleep, and two good meals in in stomach, he is all pack up and ready to go to his home. He went thru a strange but most intensely beautiful garden with nothing but roses growing in it. On his journey, he had brought back presents for the two older sisters, the babies, etc, but had been unable to find anything that would at all fit his daughter, Beauty. He decided right then and there that one of these roses would be the perfect gift for Beauty, as she was not into strings of pearls and gems and stuff like her older sisters, she loved the earth, the ground, and all things of nature. Yes, this would be the perfect gift! But, alas, as he picks it, the beast predictably appears, and unless you are only 10 yrs old, you've heard the rest of the story, just not in this beautiful heart touching rendition.
It has it's romantic moments, but never anything that should be rated for a child of any age. I've read some retellings that get rather descriptive in nature, and this in no way does that. It's just a wondrous retelling of the old story, with an early 1800's type setting (they are still driving wagons with horses hitched up), and a beautiful exposure of the prince and how he tells her. I know, I love the word "beautiful" too much for this to be a perfect review, but what better word than that for the retelling of the story "BEAUTY"
And as the story predicts, the father runs on a mission, gets lost in a snow storm, winds up a the Beast's castle, which has invisible servants, all that a king would hope to have. After a refreshing nights sleep, and two good meals in in stomach, he is all pack up and ready to go to his home. He went thru a strange but most intensely beautiful garden with nothing but roses growing in it. On his journey, he had brought back presents for the two older sisters, the babies, etc, but had been unable to find anything that would at all fit his daughter, Beauty. He decided right then and there that one of these roses would be the perfect gift for Beauty, as she was not into strings of pearls and gems and stuff like her older sisters, she loved the earth, the ground, and all things of nature. Yes, this would be the perfect gift! But, alas, as he picks it, the beast predictably appears, and unless you are only 10 yrs old, you've heard the rest of the story, just not in this beautiful heart touching rendition.
It has it's romantic moments, but never anything that should be rated for a child of any age. I've read some retellings that get rather descriptive in nature, and this in no way does that. It's just a wondrous retelling of the old story, with an early 1800's type setting (they are still driving wagons with horses hitched up), and a beautiful exposure of the prince and how he tells her. I know, I love the word "beautiful" too much for this to be a perfect review, but what better word than that for the retelling of the story "BEAUTY"
Helpful Score: 1
I read this book for the first time many years ago and remember loving it. On this reread, I found myself being a bit impatient at the beginning of the story - I think that I just wanted Beauty to get to the castle and the Beast, but once I let my patience settle down a bit, I got right back into the story and loved it once more.
Helpful Score: 1
This is not the book described in the book details. This is not a horse story. Rather Mcinley has written a lovely retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Helpful Score: 1
Absolutely awesome story of Beauty and the Beast, written with sensitivity and an deep insight to the inner beast and beauty in all of us. One of the best books I've ever read, and I've read a bunch!
