Gennady SpirinRecensioni

This is the first book re-told and illustrated by Gennady Spirin that I am a bit dissapointed with. The illustrations don't seem as in depth, and the retelling of the tales is, in some instances far off from the original telling of the story.

This is yet another stunningly illustrated book by Gennady Spirin The people portrayed in the story of the actions acccompanying the alphabetical letter were from a time in history long past. the little girls dresses were beautiful with large ribbon sashes and multicolored hats to match.

While the larger illustration of the letter and people, in the corner of each page was a portion of the large illustration with a smaller image taken from the larger one.

It is the illustrations that carry the book. Spirin took a simple subject of the alphabet and turned it into a wonderful image of spectacular beauty.

If you haven't heard of this illustrator, and if you like art, I highly recommend you delve into the beauty that is Gennedy Spirin½

A popular song around the holidays, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is brought to life in this picture book. Each time the reader turns the page, they are treated to another line of the song illustrated in stunning detail with watercolor and colored pencil. With each day, the focus of the illustration moves out to include more gifts. The celebration begins with the partridge in a pear tree and continues with golden rings, carolers, maids, geese, drummers, pipers and more.

The Bottom Line: I could look at these amazing illustrations in this picture book for hours on end. This book includes the song along with a fascinating note about the song’s origins. This beautiful book is a treasure you will want to keep. Highly recommended for everyone.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog.

The stories were pleasant variations on a well-known fairy tales. One feature that irked me was that the illustrations did not correlate with the story. The princess with the raven dark hair flowing like a stream at midnight is pictured as blonde and blue-eyed.

The stories were pleasant variations on a well-known fairy tales. One feature that irked me was that the illustrations did not correlate with the story. The princess with the raven dark hair flowing like a stream at midnight is pictured as blonde and blue-eyed.

Gorgeous illustrations

Gennady Spirin is one of my favorite illustrators. Many of his books have a beautiful religious theme, and this one is no exception.

As noted in the description of the book, "Gennady Spirin's intricate and alluring illustrations, the creation unfolds in breathtaking splendor."
Spirin lived in Russia, and now resides in Princeton, NJ. All of his beautifully illustrated books carry a magical rendering of the topic he unveils.

Charming story about an injured crow that comes to live with the author's family. Love the detailed illustrations, too.

Gennady Spirin tried something new with the illustrations of this book. Many of the images look like something from the Dutch golden age of the 17th century. And, since the Dutch painters have always been favorites of mine, I immediately liked this book.

In this story of the classic tale of young Red Riding Hood taking a basket of food to her grandmother. To do so, she must go through the woods. She is told to stay on the path and not to wander. Alas, she did not listen. Picking flowers for her grandmother allowed the big bad wolf to hurry to grandmother's house before Red Riding Hood arrived there. He hastily ate granny. Then, repeated his feast when the little girl arrived. He ate her as well! Two hunters in the woods, were walking near grannies door. They saw the wolf and his great big stomach. They cut the stomach open, releasing Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

As usual, the illustrations are simply beautiful and exquisitely detailed!

The images, as usual with art by Gennady Spirin are lush and magical. The tale however is long, convoluted and exceedingly difficult to follow. This is a story of a Tsar named Vasilyi. He had three sons. When it is discovered that the golden apples are stolen from the lush gardens. It is the elusive Firebird that is the culprit. Because of the beauty, the Tsar feels he must possess the Firebird.

Send each of his sons out to bring back the Firebird, The son Ivan Tsarevich comes upon a wolf to help him on the quest. Each time he is given a mission he is told not to touch that which he longs. Not only does the son want to capture the Firebird, but he also longs for the love of the beautiful Yelena. In the end through dedication and cunning, Ivan Tsarevich is successful in his quest.

Exquisitely beautiful, I read this book over again. Gennady Spirin is one of my favorite illustrators. He is a supremely talented artist. In this book, Spirin uses the well-known Christmas song and tale of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Starting with a partridge in a pear tree, he continues to build and luxuriously add the remaining eleven animals.

I keep all of Gennady Spirin's books because the artistic quality is matchless and incomparable.

The Russian born Gennady Spirin remains one of my favorite artists/illustrators. His book Martha is based on a true story of his son and wife finding a crow with a broken wing. Told by the veterinarian that the crow would never fly again, Gennady's son Ilya brought the crow home, named it Martha, nursed and tamed the bird who then became an integral part of their family.

I plan to read all of Spirin's books that I have not as yet acquired. His work is mesmerizingly detailed, crisp and clear, leaving me to go back time and time again to study the images.

And, I will revisit many of my favorites..yet, all are my favorites.

In exquisite watercolor illustrations, Spirin catalogs the journey of Martha and her influence on their family.½

This is an exquisite book. Anyone who appreciates art should obtain a copy. I spent over an hour looking at each detailed page. It is breathtaking!!!!

I enjoyed this version of Goldilocks and I felt the text was simple but straightforward. It told the tale, complete with papa bear, mama bear, and baby bear. The story followed them through their routine of eating porridge in their just right sized bowls, sitting in their just right sized chairs, and sleeping in their just right sized beds. Then while they were out, Goldilocks came and snuck into their house and ate their porridge, broke their chairs, and slept in their beds. They came home surprised and Goldilocks woke up and left! The dialogue was very repetitive which is good for children's books so the children can read along and shout out what the characters will say next. However, the focal point of this book was the illustration. It was very unique in that it was extremely lifelike. The bears were depicted as actual brown bears with sharp teeth and angry expressions to follow. The depiction of Goldilocks was stunning as well. While these illustrations might not be a hit with children, they are masterfully done and can be admired.

There is an image of little Goldilocks on the cover of the book. She is wearing red, white, and blue with a feather in her hat. It reminds me of early Yankee Doodle, American days. The bears are illustrated very realistically to look like humans. They also appear to have status and could be Renaissance aristocrats. He artistically uses the gutter of the pages to separate the baby bear with his parents and Goldilocks with the bears.

I did not like this version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears too much. It is based in a kingdom. There are many versions of Goldilocks, but I have never read one where the bears are elite or living nicely. Usually, they are living in a little humble cabin home in the woods. The illustrations in the book are very nice, the bears are dressed in what looks like what wealthy people would wear in the 15th century. The storyline was very much the same as “original Goldilocks” stories— which I appreciate. Goldilocks is still her mischievous self with curly golden hair. The main idea of the story is if you want something, ask before taking or using. I think the main reason I did not like the story was that of the illustrations. If this book did not have illustrations, the storyline is pretty much the same. I am biased to the bears just being bears without clothing. That is the thing about traditional literature though, it is adapted into many different versions.

Everyone in the story does something to or with the apple pie. The addition of cursive letters make the book unusual but introduces the idea of different fonts to young readers.

As chronicled by Gennady Spirin in the back of the book, this tale has an amazing history. While there were many versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it wasn't until 1831 when a handwritten copy was discovered noting the author as Eleanor Mure. Different from the version we know today, it is an old woman who is the trespasser into the home of the three bears.

Yet another story discovered in 1837 in a collection by a man named Robert Southey also has an elder woman as the intruder.

There are also early versions wherein a fox is the character who breaks into the home of the bears and he drinks milk instead of eating porridge. The title of this publication is Scapefoot.

Fast forward to 1849 when the tale called Silver Hair included a young girl as the interloper. This was found in a book titled Cundall's Treasure of Pleasure Books for Children.

It was in 1904 when a publication titled Old Nursery Stories and Rhymes, illustrated by John Hassall that we finally have the well known tale we know today.

This book written and illustrated by Gennady Spirin includes the young blond girl and the Papa, Mama and baby bears.

With lush illustrations, Spirin paints the bears in a royal fashion. Goldilocks is beautiful, and unafraid when the bears discover her in baby bear's bed.

Nice stories, nice pix, but so what?  More time is spent at the vet's than learning about Martha's personality.  Nor do I sense that the family was changed by the event.  The story seems like just the kind of thing you'd talk about to pass the time on a train with a stranger or something... nothing that means anything real.  Ok, sure, we can imagine that the family learned about courage, or compassion, or loyalty, but Spirin doesn't offer anything like that; it's on the reader to do all the work.  So, if the reader invents the meaning, what did Spirin do?  Not much, imo.½

I found this book very difficult to follow and probably wouldn't recommend it for children. The illustrations however are amazing and beautiful and would be a great book for children to look through since the illustrations tell the story.

There were a few reasons why I did not like this book very well. I did not like that on most of the pages, the text was framed and set apart from the pictures. It made it feel as if the text and the illustrations were completely separate and it made it more difficult for me to connect the illustrations to the pictures. It just did not feel like it was integrated well. I also do not like how the author chooses not to use descriptive speaking words after/before dialogue. I believe these descriptive words really help add emotion and personality to characters and the author missed this chance. For example, in the beginning the wolf asks Little Red Riding Hood to stop and pick some flowers, and I thought that Little Red Riding Hood would be excited to pick some flowers for her grandmother since she is a child, but the author just used the word "said" after her dialogue. The author does not show a variety for these words at all, she usually just uses the word "said". The big idea of this story was to not trust strangers.

This is a classic story to read to students. This would also be a great story for students to reenact.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Gennady Spirin

Summary: A family of three bears leave their home for a walk to wait on their porridge to cool. While they are walking a young girl wanders into their home and falls asleep. When the bears return home they find Goldilocks asleep in the youngest bear's bed. Goldilocks wakes up to the tree bears standing over her and runs out of the house.

Personal Reaction: Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a very popular children's story with several different outcomes. I feel like this a very dry version and was written lazily. Children are waiting to see what the bears do and when all they do is say "bye" and Goldilocks runs out, I think it is a boring ending.

Extensions Ideas: Have each child discuss what they would have done in the same situation if they were Goldlocks as well as if they were one of the bears.

This adaptation was based on a Grimms' version which included two hunters but omitted LRRH and her grandmother putting stones in the wolf's belly. The cover art was absolutely gorgeous - I'd love it as a painting - and the rest was true to its 17th century Dutch inspirations. However, there was A LOT of white space on most of the inside pages. That empty space pulled me out of the story because the pictures felt kinda, hmm, fake, sorta posed or something.

Yet the wolf looked super scary in this adaptation. The wolf often took up 90% of the page and proportionally was two times bigger than LRRH. Wolf's face also looked like a real wolf's face: all animal and fierce. Except of course he was dressed like a man of the times LOL. Maybe that bit of silliness was meant to offset his otherwise terrifying appearance and demeanor. I wouldn't buy this one for my collection but it's well worth checking out.

3 stars

This is the second Gennady Spirin book I have read, I am in awe of his beautiful illustrations. He has a very unique style and I feel that his pictures truly pop off of the page. I also really enjoy his incorporation of his Russian culture in his books. This book is about the rescue of a crow, the crow has an injured wing and is told it will never fly again. Regardless, the young boy who found the crow, whom he names Martha, dedicates his time to the crows recovery and one day, the crow is able to fly away with ease.