I love Trina Schart Hyman's illustrations, and they go perfectly with the four tales from Chaucer that Barbara Cohen chose to adapt. A good introduction to Chaucer! ( )

The marvelously talented children's writer Barbara Cohen, author of such wonderful stories as Seven Daughters and Seven Sons and Molly's Pilgrim, turns her attention to the work of 14th-century author Geoffrey Chaucer, sometimes known as the 'Father of English Literature,' in this wonderful collection of adapted tales. The equally talented Trina Schart Hyman, who won the Caldecott Medal for her Saint George and the Dragon, contributes the accompanying artwork here. Cohen retells four of the twenty-four stories from Chaucer's immortal Canterbury Tales, keeping fairly faithfully to the original narratives, but changing the language and structure quite a bit for today's young reader. The stories included, all told in prose, rather than poetry, are: The Nun's Priest's Prologue and Tale, The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale, The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, and The Franklin's Prologue and Tale. An afterword gives more information about how Cohen adapted these medieval stories...

As someone who loves Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which I have only ever read in the original Middle English, I was curious to see what I would make of Cohen and Hyman's interpretation. I love both author and illustrator here, so I had high hopes, and I was not disappointed. The narrative here is engaging, and the artwork simply beautiful! Given the adult content of so many of the stories in the original, it would have been easy for a children's adapter to change, not just the outward trappings of these selections, but some of the bawdier details as well. Apparently this was done quite frequently in 19th-century children's adaptations of Chaucer. Cohen resists that impulse however, and her retellings feel faithful, while also seeming fresh and appealing to the more modern temper. I appreciated the selection of tales here, as at least two of the stories - The Nun's Priest's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale - can be read in conjunction with other, related works of literature and storytelling. The former is a retelling of the Reynardian story of Chanticleer and the Fox, while the latter is an Arthurian story with striking parallels to that of Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. Given that this is so, teachers and homeschoolers working on a unit on medieval English, or medieval letters in general, could use Cohen's text, together with a retelling of these two other stories, to create a lesson on the interconnected, intertextual nature of literature in the period.

I did enjoy Cohen's Canterbury Tales, and I thought Trina Schart Hyman's accompanying artwork was stunning. Her illustrations of the entire cast of pilgrims was amazing, as was her specific portrait of each storyteller included by Cohen. Unfortunately, other than these paintings, as well as four others illustrating each of the four stories, there were no other visuals. Personally, I would have liked there to be more - perhaps a few paintings per tale? As it is, there are many stretches with just text, making this more of an illustrated text, than a picture-book. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, although I do think that the length and maturity of theme makes this a book better suited for older children, middle grades and above, but it is regrettable that there wasn't more from Hyman. Leaving aside that criticism, this is one I would recommend to anyone looking for a children's adaptation of Chaucer, as well as to fans of Trina Schart Hyman. Needless to say, once one is old enough, the reader should read the original (and I do mean the original Middle English, rather than the modern translation), something Cohen herself hoped for, in her afterword. ( )

Boys (11 and 14) are enjoying this intro to Chaucer. They like the movie The Knight's Tale starring Heath Ledger which has Chaucer as a main character. Makes this reading fun ( )

Please be aware this must be screened first by parents.

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