LA HIJA DEL MAGO

Una fascinante armonía entre texto e imágenes para un cuento-canto al amor y a la libertad. Sin ellos, queda bien claro que ni todo el poder y el saber, ni toda la belleza y riqueza del mundo pueden ayudarnos a encontrar la felicidad que todos buscamos.

Así comienza:
En un país blanco y frío, situado en la cúspide del mundo, vivían hace muchos años un mago y su hija. Tan grande era el poder del mago que, a pesar de estar rodeado el palacio de grandes superficies de hielo, sus jardines resplandecían de perfumadas flores y los inundaba el dulcísimo trino de los pájaros. Al otro lado de los muros había verdes prados y profundos bosques y lagos de aguas transparentes, que llegaban hasta donde les cerraban el paso los glaciares y las montañas de hielo...

I have just read this with my niece and nephew, one of my own childhood favourites.
The Enchanter is a powerful man indeed, he lives alone with his daughter and it seems they want for nothing as he has learnt all the spells of previous sorcerer's. Unfortunately, his quest for knowledge is unfinished as he searches for the secret of eternal youth, but this drive leaves his daughter yearning for more. Her dreams have led her to believe that there is more to her life than living in a palace with her father. Without realising, he gives her the key to a new world.
Beautiful illustrations and a story that makes the readers stop and think.
As the children listened, they asked a lot of questions and the ending provoked a good discussion. This is just what a good book should be like. ( )

"In the cold white land at the top of the world there once lived an enchanter and his daughter." Isolated from the rest of the world, the enchanter's daughter had never met anyone but her father, nor seen any place but her mountain-top home. She didn't even have a name. But somehow, through some sixth sense fed by her dreams, she knew that she had not always been as she was now, that once she has led a different life. Once, in some forgotten past, she had had a mother, and a name. But could she ever regain that true self...?

This original fairy-tale is dedicated to the author's adopted daughter, and one wonders whether its theme of an unbreakable mother-daughter bond might not be intended for her, the real Thi-Phi-Yen. I was struck, in the course of reading, by Barber's use of the idea of the "true self," from which the individual is separated, and toward which she struggles. I was also struck, and pleased, by the fact that it is the storybooks - given by the enchanter to his daughter, in an effort to placate her with something "harmless" like fairy-tales - that provide the first freedom and knowledge the heroine has ever known. An engaging, thought-provoking tale, greatly enhanced by Errol le Cain's gorgeous illustrations, The Enchanter's Daughter is one picture-book that fairy-tale fans will not want to miss! ( )