The Sleeper and the Spindle
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3.9 • 27 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In a beautiful collaboration, New York Times bestselling and Newbery and Carnegie Medal-winning author Neil Gaiman and Kate Greenaway-winning illustrator Chris Riddell have created a thrillingly reimagined fairy tale, "told in a way only Gaiman can" and featuring "stunning metallic artwork" (GeekInsider.com).
The result is a beautiful and coveted edition of The Sleeper and the Spindle that the Guardian calls "a refreshing, much-needed twist on a classic story."
In this captivating and darkly funny tale, Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have twisted together the familiar and the new as well as the beautiful and the wicked to tell a brilliant version of Snow White's (sort of) and Sleeping Beauty's (almost) stories.
This story was originally published (without illustrations) in Rags & Bones (Little, Brown, 2013). This is the first time it is being published as an illustrated, stand-alone edition, and the book is a beautiful work of art.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Always a superb spinner of tales, Gaiman presents a filigreed elaboration of Sleeping Beauty that, before long, reveals itself as something more. Three dwarves discover a realm in which everyone has fallen asleep, and they cross into the next country to warn its queen of the great plague that threatens her people. Alert readers won't miss the hint to the queen's identity: "Would I sleep, as they did?" she asks one of the dwarfs, who replies, "You slept for a year.... And then you woke again, none the worse for it." Traveling to the cursed kingdom, the queen and dwarves encounter threatening zombie sleepers and more, but the storyline is still recognizable underneath the new details. It isn't until the travelers penetrate the castle that things tilt sideways. Something new is going on, and readers will be carried to the end by the whirlwind force of Gaiman's imagination. Riddell draws in pen and ink, eschewing color save for select gold accents and pouring his energy into myriad, spidery lines and delicate cross-hatching that recall Aubrey Beardsley's eerie set pieces. It's a genuine treat. Ages 13 up.
Customer Reviews
Cliffhangers beware
The author left a few cliffhangers towards the end. It’s an easy read, but it could have been longer. Maybe that makes for a good story?