The Sleeper and the Spindle
WINNER OF THE CILIP KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL 2016
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- 59,00 kr
Publisher Description
The bestselling, award-bedecked Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell are reunited in this irresistible fairytale reboot, with vibrant red ink adding lustre to an amazingly beautiful book.
'Suffused with joy and melancholy ... It is absolutely a retelling for our age, but also for ages still to come' Guardian
Weaving together hints of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty with a shimmering thread of dark magic, this twist on classic fairytales will hold readers spellbound from start to finish.
On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and ventures into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems.
Twisting together the familiar and the new, this delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows its creators at the peak of their talents and was the winner of the 2016 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.
Lavishly produced and packed with glorious Chris Riddell illustrations, this amazingly beautiful book makes a spectacular and magical gift.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Always a superb spinner of tales, Gaiman presents a filigreed elaboration of Sleeping Beauty that, before long, reveals itself as something more. Three dwarves discover a realm in which everyone has fallen asleep, and they cross into the next country to warn its queen of the great plague that threatens her people. Alert readers won't miss the hint to the queen's identity: "Would I sleep, as they did?" she asks one of the dwarfs, who replies, "You slept for a year.... And then you woke again, none the worse for it." Traveling to the cursed kingdom, the queen and dwarves encounter threatening zombie sleepers and more, but the storyline is still recognizable underneath the new details. It isn't until the travelers penetrate the castle that things tilt sideways. Something new is going on, and readers will be carried to the end by the whirlwind force of Gaiman's imagination. Riddell draws in pen and ink, eschewing color save for select gold accents and pouring his energy into myriad, spidery lines and delicate cross-hatching that recall Aubrey Beardsley's eerie set pieces. It's a genuine treat. Ages 13 up.
