LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
Jackie Morris has taken Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale of love, loyalty and courage and made it her own. The story of Eliza who must break the enchantment that has turned her eleven brothers into swans by knitting them shirts from stinging nettles is perfect for Morris’s storytelling style and, in words and art, she captures both the beauty of the natural world – so key to this story – and the strange sense of magic that makes it so enthralling. Running along the top of pages, or breaking up text, her illustrations have the feel of a medieval illuminated manuscript while the beautiful double page illustrations place readers right at the heart of the story. This is a book to enchant readers of any age. ~ Andrea Reece
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The Wild Swans Synopsis
This very beautiful and lyrical extended version of the fairy tale 'The Wild Swans' by Hans Christian Andersen is the much anticipated companion to East of the Sun, West of the Moon. With strong characterisation of the heroine and also with more rounded characterisation of the wicked stepmother than in the original version, and with delicate watercolour paintings throughout, this is both a wonderful story and delightful gift. Beautifully presented in a jacketed edition with foiled title.
“Eliza lived in a castle beside a forest…” At first there is only happiness; a child-hood blessed with loving parents and eleven brothers, handsome and brave. But when the queen, their mother dies, a terrible change comes to the castle and to Eliza.
Enchantment deep in the forest leads the king to marry the mysterious woman in white. Who knows why he conceals his children from her, in a tall tower, within a complex maze? But when the new queen discovers them, she takes bitter revenge, and eleven boys become eleven swans, who must fly far, far away from their sister. Eliza will need love, faith and courage to find her brothers, and that is only the beginning of her quest to break the white queen’s spell.
Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale, The Wild Swans is a beautiful, dark and dangerous coming of age story from an extraordinarily gifted writer and illustrator.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781847805362 |
| Publication date: |
1st October 2015 |
| Author: |
Jackie Morris |
| Publisher: |
Frances Lincoln Childrens Books an imprint of Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Suitable For: |
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Press Reviews
Jackie Morris Press Reviews
Praise for The Wild Swans
“This really is beautiful and how a fairy tale book should be. I was quickly pulled into this amazing tale
and found myself reading faster and faster and had to go back to re-read everything and just drink it in.
The pictures are the perfect accompaniment.” Mister Finch
Praise for East of the Sun, West of the Moon
“Delicately written and exquisitely illustrated. A charming tale of magic, love and freedom.” Julia Eccleshare, LoveReading
“An absolutely beautiful and lyrical retelling of the classic northern folk-tale, re-imagined with a modern backdrop.” The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice
An entrancing story – beautifully told and illustrated by the author. A book to treasure.” Parents in Touch
“A ravishing story of love, longing, courage and coming-of-age.” The Times
“Brings fresh insights to a profound and ancient story.” IBBYLink
“Jackie Morris does more than tell a story, she conjures glorious landscapes of the heart.” Meg Rosoff
“Re-imagined for the 21st century, a familiar folk story becomes a haunting love story. This lyrical, romantic and realistic version is one to savor and to read aloud.” Kirkus Starred Review
Author
About Jackie Morris
Jackie Morris is a bestselling writer and artist. Her almost uncanny ability to draw and paint living landscapes and wildlife began around the age of six when she watched her father draw a lapwing and wanted to learn the same magic. Born in Birmingham, she grew up in Evesham, but has lived for a long time in Wales, in “a small cottage held together by spiders’ webs”.
As a writer and illustrator she has many books to her name; of which The Lost Words, in collaboration with Robert Macfarlane, is the best known. For Otter-Barry Books she has written, among others, the three much-loved Mrs Noah books, The Jackie Morris Book of Classic Nursery Rhymes and Something About a Bear.
Her internationally bestselling picture books for Frances Lincoln are Ted Hughes’ How the Whale Became; Mariana and the Merchild; The Snow Leopard; Can You See a Little Bear?; The Snow Whale; Lord of the Forest; as well as those she has both written and illustrated, The Seal Children; The Time of the Lion; Little One We Knew You’d Come; Tell Me a Dragon; The Cat and the Fiddle: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes; The Ice Bear. She has also written and illustrated a critically acclaimed novel for older children, East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
In 2019 she won the Kate Greenaway Medal for her illustration of The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane. In her acceptance speech, Jackie Morris, said: “The times ahead are challenging. It seems to me that artists, writers, musicians have one job at the moment – to help to tell the truth about what is happening to this small and fragile world we inhabit, to re-engage with the natural world, to inspire and to imagine better ways to live. Because there is no Planet B and we are at a turning point. And because in order to make anything happen it first needs to be imagined. And as writers and illustrators for children we grow the readers and thinkers of the future.
“I’m learning so much as I watch our young people call politicians to account. Together we can make a change. And we must. While politicians nod and pretend to listen to Greta Thunberg, declare Climate Emergencies, then continue with ‘business as usual’ finding money always for bombs and seldom for books we need to stand beside these children and hold our deceitful leaders to account.”
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