As per usual with retold fariytales, the narrative of this book is nothing really special. The author sticks to a relatively Disney-fied version - only giving the 13th/evil fairy less power outside of her curse and the 12th fairy (who alter the curse) a fancy dragon. The illustrations are quite nice though, and give the story a wonderfully Rennaisance Italy kind of feel. THe princess is typically blonde, but she reminds me very much of the youngest Borgia daughter and therefore fits the scenery quite well. Craft has a definite mastery of her medium since the illustrations are very highly detailed and it is hard not to be impressed by her careful attention to costuming and architecture. ( )

Mahlon F. Craft and Kinuko Y. Craft did a spectacular job in writing this retelling of the classic sleeping beauty tale. The king and queen finally have a baby girl only for a curse to be placed upon her on her 16th birthday by a fairy. The curse was for her to “prick herself with a spindle and die.” The parents are horrified and the younger fairy explains to them that she will not die but will be sleeping for 100 years. There were some aspects of this book different from the original. For example, I don’t remember the whole castle sleeping with the princess when she is put down on her 16th birthday. The ending consists of the prince saving Aurora and marrying her. I loved the high vocabulary used in the book and I think my favorite thing about this wonderful book is the illustrations. Kinuko Y. Craft does a great job. The color, detail, and depth of the illustrations bring the story to life. The artwork alone had me lost in the stories plot. ( )

This is a great book and the kids will love it! It caters more yo girls but I think it would be a class favorite. ( )

I would use this book in a second through fourth grade setting due to the appeal of happy endings, but malicious intentions. I would use this book to have my students create a character map that would include details about the character and how they would change the character. The character would then become their main character of their short story take on their own version of Sleeping Beauty. I would also have my students describe the setting with very descriptive words that come from our vocabulary of the text. They will need to descriptively define the setting with mindfulness of the time we are living in now compared to the time of Sleeping Beauty with reflection of their opinions on happily ever after. ( )

The illustrations are breathtakingly beautiful from a distance, and full of interesting and fantastic details upon closer examination. This book takes the classic story of the enchanted Princess Aurora, setting the tale in a romantic fantasy kingdom, with the artwork combining rennaisance, high baroque and modern artistic styles.In this tale it appears that the prince wants to rescue Aurora, which appears more selfless than in some other retellings: "The thought of a sleeping beauty such as Briar Rose lying unprotected in a thorny prison was more than his good and valiant nature could bear." ( )