Bearskin (Books of Wonder)

by Howard Pyle

Other authorsTrina Schart Hyman (Illustrator), Peter Glassman (Afterword)

Hardcover, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

PYLE

Genres

Children's Books

Publication

HarperCollins (1997), 48 pages

Description

A brave young man who has been raised by a bear with unusual powers rescues a princess from a menacing dragon and fulfills a long-ago prophecy that he would marry the king's daughter.

User reviews

LibraryThing member t1bclasslibrary

This fairy tale written in 1887 by Howard Pyle combines a few elements of other tales, but puts them together with many new elements that create a classic tale with classic motifs. The protagonist is a boy raised by a bear who calls on the bear to get the supplies he needs to kill a dragon and

later marry the princess. It is beautifully illustrated, and, as Peter Glassman points out in the afterward, the illustrations combine characters of many races in a natural way, with a harmony we would do well to mirror in the real world.

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LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV

Howard Pyle's original tale combining several classical tropes is interesting enough, if one can enter into the mindset that this world is magic and not everything has to actually make sense. But Oh! TSH's art is gorgeous, and also genius as it tells so much more of the story than the words. Every

single character is, no other way to say it, *real* and is also someone I wish I actually knew.

Even the king. Yes, it was bad that he tried to kill the baby that was prophesied to marry his daughter. But he did do two things - first he didn't take it away from the father cold, as he could have done, but rather did pay for it, and second he did come to his senses later on. Again, given the setting, all this was fitting.

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