Marilee HeyerRecensioni

I remember being enchanted by this chinese folktale when I was younger largely because of the beautiful illustrations and the end where the weaver girl ,the servant of the East wind weaves herself into the tapestry.

You can read the fairytale here http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111114/LIFE/111140302

Juanita Neilands

This is a beautiful picture book telling a traditional Chinese folktale. I love everything about it: the story, the illustrations, and the fact that it still keeps the edge that all folktales started with before they were made "safer" for kids.

Beautiful, vibrant illustrations.

The story is a retelling of a Chinese folktale, "The Chuang Brocade."

I read this with my 11-year-old son and both of us really enjoyed it. The art is beautiful and the story was very whimsical, with an unrestrained creativity that was inspiring to say the least.

Highly recommended for young readers. It's fantastical without being cutesy or speaking down.

"When the beautiful tapestry woven by a poor woman is stolen by fairies, her three sons set out on a magical journey to retrieve it. A retelling of a traditional Chinese tale."

Gorgeous illustrations! I'm still thinking on the story, though... the old woman sacrificed food for her family in order to weave the brocade, and then asks her sons to risk their lives to retrieve it for her. Then the two eldest sons betray their mother for gold, but the youngest son completes the quest, restores his mother's health, and gets the girl. And his two older brothers end up beggars. So its potential takeaway/ deeper interpretations might not be the best for the youngest of readers, but the pictures are dazzling.

4 stars

The story is told in a very modern tone which makes it an easy read and not as dense as most mythology. I love that Orgel is giving these goddesses their voices, they are so overlooked in mythology.

Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera each tell her own story from her own point of view.

A Spanish folk tale about a selfish little girl who is transformed into a fish. I did not like this story and will probably never use it in the classroom. I really lost interest in the end when the only way the girl would be truly happy is if she had a prince.

This story is about an elderly mother who dreams of living in a great palace. Her son gives her the idea to weave the palace as a brocade because her weaving is so life like. She spends three years weaving the beautiful brocade which then gets blown away in the wind. All three sons take turns going out to find the brocade for their dying mother. The story goes into detail about the quest of the youngest son.

The story is brought to life through intricate illustrations and attention to detail within the text. The story's key features include the elaborate, intricate, beautiful illustrations which bring the story to life. For example, everything seems to have detailed texture such as the mother's hand, the scales of a lizard, fur of a boot, the surface of the brocade, and more.

The text is very beautifully written. For example, "the beautiful palace, songbirds of every kind, luscious fruits and vegetables ready to pick" and "a river ran in front of the palace, and the whole painting was warmed by a great red sun" are phrases used to describe the setting or painting.

The main message of this book is to follow through with your promises, be selfless, and stay loyal to your mother. You will be rewarded. I love that the son who remained loyal and sacrificial for his mother was rewarded. His humble spirit made it even better since he didn't expect a palace, a beautiful wife, his mother's health, or a child on its way. This is a wonderful story.

These stories told within this book are so rich with detail, yet very understandable (even to a young audience). I really like that the stories are told straight from the perspective of the Goddesses themselves, which is something new, and it adds an interesting insight! In addition, the illustrations really enhance the stories! I am so impressed with this selection!

This compilation of myths features three major female figures/ goddesses in Greek mythology. Each of the stories focus on a particular goddess, Athena, Aphrodite, and/or Hera, and provides further insight as to how she came to hold such great significance in the culture.
I believe that this book's meaning and importance lies heavily in the messages it conveys to an older age group of young readers. By focusing on three female entities and highlighting their individual backgrounds, it not only discusses the Greek culture's value in them, but it also provides a more egalitarian outlook on important figures in spirituality. As a woman, much of what I would read when I was younger was focused on males as being the powerful historical and/ or religious beings and models for people to look up to. However, with We Goddesses, I believe that this shows how women too have an active stance and position in such realms and gives young audiences more advanced and open world views that do not point to the oppression or belittling of certain categories of being.

Marilee Heyer, an author/illustrator whose other picture-books - The Weaving of a Dream, Iron Hans, The Girl, the Fish, & the Crown - are adaptations of traditional folk and fairy-tales, delivers an original work of fantasy in The Forbidden Door. The result is a book that absolutely dazzles, when it comes to the artwork, and is fairly engaging, as it concerns the text. I enjoyed the story here - a young girl named Reena, having grown up in an extensive and beautifully-decorated system of underground caves, sets out to discover this legendary "Outside" spoken of in an ancestral tale told by her mother, and finds that she must battle an evil being known as the Okira - but it was Heyer's illustrations that really made this book stand out!

Astoundingly beautiful, this artwork makes me regret that I never encountered it as a young girl! The use of vivid and contrasting color schemes - deep blues and reds, rich browns and oranges - and the intricate and detailed depictions of enchanting rooms and landscapes, and fantastical creatures, combine in full and double-page paintings that are simply breathtaking! I was reminded of the work of Kinuko Y. Craft, and - when it comes to fairy-tale art - I really can't pay a higher compliment than that! I will definitely be tracking down more of Heyer's work, and heartily recommend this one to fairy-tale lovers young and old, and to any reader who appreciates beautiful fairy-tale artwork!

Author Doris Orgel brilliantly retells the stories of three of the most loved goddesses – Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. The stories are told not in the third person in the normal form of a myth, but rather from the point of view of the goddesses themselves, in the first person. Each story tells how the goddesses was born or created, describes her powers and gifts, and retells some of the most famous myths about her. The stories are told in order from the moment of creation forward, along a connected timeline. For example, Hera’s story begins with her birth, then moves to her meeting Zeus, tells us of his adulterous love affairs, then their marriage, then his infidelity afterwards and how Hera deals with this. Athena’s story includes her birth, her childhood and youthful playmates, then the competition between her and Poseidon to become ruler of the city that will later be known as Athens. Aphrodite’s story includes her creation from sea foam, her first meeting with the gods and goddesses on Olympus, major love affairs she caused or was involved in herself, and her role in the Trojan War. All three stories are skillfully intertwined so the goddesses are connected by their relationships with each other and their relationships with Zeus, king of the gods.

This is an excellent book for children! The illustrations are beautiful, and add so much life. The stories are well explained from start to finish, and are very easy for kids to understand. The stories are told from the perspectives of each of the Goddesses, which makes for a very informative read as well as entertaining.

A soiled, selfish young girl does not hheed the words of an enchanted fish, so she is turned into a fish. In a magical undersea world, she encounters others who have also been turned into sea creatures. The queen of the creatures sends her on a journey to find and retrieve her crown, as it has the power to turn them all human again. The girl accepts the challenge and is given the power to change into whatever animal she chooses. Eventually the girl completes the task and finds love in the process.½

I fell in love with this book the very moment I saw it. Drawing on the oft-overlooked power and beauty of the ancient goddesses, Orgel spins wonderful tales from the perspectives of Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera. She provides excellent background in her introduction, and additional information at the end.

An excellent look into the stories of three well known Greek Goddesses; Athena, goddess of wisdom, Aphrodite, goddess of love and Hera, the goddess of marriage. It tells of the famous stories of their beginnings in great detail, with individual stories of how and why historical greek events occurred. An great read! I would use this in any of my classes that I was talking about Greek mythology to show them another way to see the stories!

Beautiful illustrations with stories told from the point of view of Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. One among many of my favorite mythology books as a child.

This is a children’s book (for ages 6-10), but I checked it out of the library as part of my study on Athena anyway because I don’t remember any books like this when I was that age…a very interesting read, I liked how the author gave Athena a mother/birth attachment. The author’s a bit idealistic in places, but overall I think it’s a fine book and it was a fun, if short read. I’ll be getting a copy of this for my kid’s library, and when they “outgrow” it, I’ll add it to mine. Definitely worth a look at for anyone interested in Greek mythology, it’s an interesting perspective with amazing artwork!

This is an exceptionally beautiful story book with large detailed illustrations of an alien world that is located on the smallest star that can be seen in our skies, in the Valley of the Bao-Bickle tree. It is about the quest of a young girl whose home is in an intricate labyrinth of caves and who has never even heard of a world outside of those caves. It is forbidden to go outside. She is very happy with her parents and lives in splendor within the caves where even lush exotic fruit trees are plentiful. One night the little girl learns about Outside from a story her mother tells. She begins to secretly search for this mysterious place and eventually learns the terrifying truth about why her family lives in the caves. With the help of another strange species of beings she sets things to rights. The story is well told and has a decidedly alien feeling of enchantment, danger, courage, hunger and liberation. It is simple enough that little ones will find it an exciting adventure tale and complex enough that adults will find it an atmospheric and moody allegory. The illustrations are INCREDIBLE and like none you have ever seen outside of dreams, visions or hallucinations.

This was a very beautiful story with beautiful illustrations to accompany the tale. I wish they made more stories like this one - stories with deeper meaning.