Toads and Diamonds

by Charlotte S. Huck

Other authorsAnita Lobel (Illustrator)
Hardcover, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

J2K.102

Publication

Greenwillow Books (First Edition)

Pages

32

Description

Two step-sisters receive appropriate gifts for their actions: one's words are accompanied by flowers and jewels, the other's by toads and snakes.

Collection

Barcode

556

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1695, Perrault's first manuscript version of five tales...this tale was titled "The Fairies"

Physical description

32 p.; 12.25 inches

ISBN

068813680X / 9780688136802

User reviews

LibraryThing member nzfj
Library Thing Part C # 10 Traditional Literature
Huck, Charlotte, and Anita Lobel. Toads and Diamonds. New York: Greenwillow, 1996. Print.

On the Author’s Note page, the last page of the book, Charlotte Huck has shared her research knowledge and endeavors for this work. It is fascinating that she
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decided to retell Perrault’s version of this folktale. As she stated in her Author’s Note, there are over nine hundred versions of this story type, “The Kind and Unkind Sisters” that have been recorded. Two stepsisters at different times wander into the forest to collect water at a spring; when the first stepsister, the younger one, sets out to the spring, she meets an old woman who asks for a drink of water. This younger mistreated sister shows the old woman kindness and offers water to the woman, who in turn, gives her a gift of flowers and jewels. Every time the young girl speaks, flowers and jewels fall from her mouth. Returning home with her new gift, her stepsister and mother become envious throw her out into the street. The mother sends her daughter in search of the old woman by the spring, in hopes of gaining the same gift. The stepsister is not as lucky and runs into a bird landing on her shoulder and scaring her. She then runs into a peaceful rabbit and tries to catch it for a stew, and then meets a beautiful young woman limping and who asks her for a drink of water. The folktale pattern of three is seen here and with all three visits, the older stepsister does not show kindness but instead shows a hostile proud full attitude. The old woman reveals all three of her transformations and then bestows the gift of toads and snakes on the stepsister. Every time she speaks, toads and snakes will fall out of her mouth.
It is a treasure to be able to read a folktale from the 1600’s and especially to enjoy it in a big book format with Anita Lobel’s superb expressionistic/ folkart style. Her color palette are rich primary colors that surround the text , almost giving the feeling of one peeking around a curtain to look outside one’s window at an impossible scene from a fairy tale world unfolding on the street. A must buy for the library folktale collection. Curriculum connection is prek-middle school -language arts, great read aloud, readers theatre. Appropriate age 0-10+
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LibraryThing member Ghost_Tomas
This is a retelling of the fairy tale "The Kind and Unkind Sisters". A kind daughter is nice to a stranger, and every time she talks roses and diamonds fall from her mouth. The bad mother makes the bad sister do the same thing, except she isn't nice and so the stranger curses her so that snakes and
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toads fall from her mouth.

Because I have read an un-child-ized version before, this version sort of rubbed raw on my nerves. It is a good story though.

The illustrations show the evil mother and evil sister as both being fat with blonde curls while the good sister is thin. I feel that is sterotypical.
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LibraryThing member Whisper1
While the story is typical of some fairy tales, and it did hold my interest, the illustrations were not as engaging as Lobel's usual artistry.

There are two daughters of a nasty mother. One is kind, generous and loving, the other, the biological child, is nasty, self centered and vile. When Renee,
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the step daughter, comes upon an elderly woman, she is asked to fetch some water. While getting the water, she befriends a bird and a rabbit. Her reward from the old woman is that whenever she opens her mouth, diamonds and jewels will flow forth.

When the biological daughter is told to find the old lady and get her reward, She does not meet an elderly lady, but rather meets a lovely woman who requests water. Rude, nasty and begrudging, she is ugly to the critters along the way. Her reward from the lovely lady is that when she opens her mouth, snakes and toads will spew forth.

The mother tires of snakes and toads and sends her daughter away. Renee happens upon, a prince who uses the jewels as a dowry. They live ..... happily ever after.
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LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
In this French variant of the classic "good sister/bad sister" story - tale-type 480 in the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification system - two step-sisters find very different rewards for their different behavior. Goodhearted Renée, much put-upon by her unkind stepmother and stepsister, is
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rewarded with flowers and gemstones every time she speaks, after showing kindness to a bird and rabbit, on her way to the spring, and fetching a cool drink of water for an old woman. Selfish Francine, on the other hand, discovers that toads and snakes fall from her mouth when she speaks, after refusing to aid the same two creatures, and a beautiful lady (all the old woman in disguise) on her own trip to the spring.

Included by celebrated fairy-tale-salon author Charles Perrault in his 1697 collection, Histoires ou contes du temps passé: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oie ("Stories or Fairy Tales from Bygone Eras: Tales of Mother Goose"), in which it was known simply as Les Fées ("The Fairies"), this story reminds me of any number of other variants, particularly the Grimm fairy-tale of Mother Holly. Charlotte Huck's retelling is engaging, and Anita Lobel's accompanying watercolor and gouache illustrations, although at first glance not really to my taste, won me over by the end. Recommended to young fairy-tale enthusiasts, and to fans of Anita Lobel's artwork.
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Rating

(7 ratings; 4)

Call number

J2K.102
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