Blog #15

Beauty and the Beast:

A Pop-Up Book of the Classic Fairy Tale

Written and illustrated by : Robert Sabuda

Little Simon, Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

2010

10 pages

Traditional Literature

            Beauty and the Beast is classic fairy tale about a princess and a beast.  This is no Disney story and it is definitely not based off the movie we’ve all seen as children.  This book is based off the fairy tale.  There are many elements that are similar to the story we all are familiar with, but there are some major differences.  Beauty is the daughter of a merchant and a sibling to many brothers and two hateful sisters.  Beauty, in contrast to the greedy, selfish sisters, is kind and thoughtful.  She truly loves her father and cares for the well-being of her family.  After her father, the merchant, loses all of his money in a shipwreck and eventually goes in search of his recovered ship, he runs into the castle and finds the Beast.  After their deal is struck, Beauty does not hesitate to take her father’s place at the castle.  The Beast is kind to her and gives her the entire property of the castle.  Every night at dinner the Beast asks Beauty to marry him.  Beauty always answers no because she does not love the Beast.  After certain events take place, Beauty returns to the castle to proclaim her love for the Beast.  The Beast then turns back into man and they were married. They lived happily ever after in the castle.

            The illustrations in this book are not traditional.  Robert Sabuda illustrated this book by paper engineering.  This type of book is called a pop-up book.  Sabuda has intricately designed each page to move and display the meaning of the story through these paper 3-D images.  Sabuda used dark, deep colors in this book including dark red, deep purple, and green.  My favorite illustrations include the three hallway replicas on page two.  You can lift the accordion paper to view the inside of the hallway and it is as if you are really there!  So cool!  I also love the page with the face of the Beast.  It is surprising to see the monster’s face coming out at the reader when they turn the page.  The book uses formal text placement and double page spreads.  The line of the illustrations is very bold and thick, showing differentiation between the images.

            This book is appropriate for any age!  I love these books because they are interesting and eye-catching for any one, no matter their age! I am twenty-one years old and I loved reading this book.  Younger children should be read aloud to, but older children who are old enough to take care of the delicate illustrations and read the content can read independently.  I would use this book in my classroom to talk about character education, introduce different kinds of traditional literature, and also breaking down the elements of literature: characters, plot, theme, setting, and conflict.  This book has won no awards.