The Snow Princess (The Ruth Sanderson Collection) - Tapa dura

It is easy to underestimate the power of Sanderson's exquisite oil paintings, with their glowing textures and near-perfect detail. Most of the full-page, full-bleed illustrations are done in every shade and tonality of blue, from the ice to midnight, and she uses the washed gold of winter sunlight to pick out other effects. The page spread of the Snow Princess in her snowflake-studded, ermine-trimmed cloak, her dark hair afloat, with her hand resting on a striding polar bear, will make little girls in particular swoon. --Kirkus Reviews

Sanderson's version of a Russian folktale is based on the Tchaikovsky opera-ballet The Snow Princess, which recasts the traditional story as a romance in which the daughter of Father Frost enters the human world and finds her icy heart warmed, to her parents' dismay, by a handsome youth. Sanderson s resplendent oils have a suitably chilly polish, and children will be transfixed by the characters' elaborate Byzantine costumes. Sanderson stays true to her source in every detail but one: in the opera the girl is as doomed as her folktale counterpart, but Sanderson allows her to forgo her immortality to stay with the man she loves. --Booklist

Painted with oils, the artwork is simply stunning - among the most beautiful picture books I have seen. --Mary Helen Sheriff

Sanderson's version of a Russian folktale is based on the Tchaikovsky opera-ballet The Snow Princess, which recasts the traditional story as a romance in which the daughter of Father Frost enters the human world and finds her icy heart warmed, to her parents' dismay, by a handsome youth. Sanderson s resplendent oils have a suitably chilly polish, and children will be transfixed by the characters' elaborate Byzantine costumes. Sanderson stays true to her source in every detail but one: in the opera the girl is as doomed as her folktale counterpart, but Sanderson allows her to forgo her immortality to stay with the man she loves. --Booklist

Painted with oils, the artwork is simply stunning - among the most beautiful picture books I have seen. --Mary Helen Sheriff

Despite the warnings of her parents, Father Frost and Mother Spring, the Snow Princess falls in love with a human and risks losing her immortality.