Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
ISBN 0307010368 ? Having read a number of collaborations between Disney and Golden Books recently, I?m so happy to find them back on track with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The illustrations are standard Disney, the story is complete and well told.
The Queen is a very vain woman, not happy to see her step-daughter?s beauty eclipse her own, so when her mirror finally confirms the dreaded reality, she sends the huntsman into the woods with Snow White with orders to kill her. The huntsman can?t bring himself to do it, so he warns her and tells her to run, which she does. Finding a small house, with the help of forest animals who have befriended her, Snow White cleans it up in hopes of being invited to stay. The owners of the house, seven dwarfs, find her there when they return from work and decide that she should stay ? and that she should be very careful from now on. When an old woman comes to the cottage, offering Snow White an apple, she fails to see the harm until it?s too late. Certain that she?s dead, the dwarfs give her a coffin of glass and gold and she lies there until her prince comes and wakes her with a kiss.
Unlike recent reads from Disney/Golden Books, Snow White hits every important note of the original without seeming hurried. I still think it?s one dwarf, two dwarves? but grammar is nowhere near as important as a fairy tale! For those parents who stress about these things, there?s no violence and the single presumed death is vague, to say the least. Well worth picking up for your little reader.
- AnnaLovesBooks