#15- Beauty and the Beast

15- Beauty & the Beast

Title: Beauty & the Beast

Author: Robert Sabuda

Illustrator: Robert Sabuda

Publishing Company: Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

Copyright: 2010

# of Pages: 10

Genre/Category: Traditional Literature

            I chose this book because I was amazed by it. Robert Sabuda used paper engineering to create fabulous pop ups, and I really wanted to take a closer look at it. This book is a version of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. A man wanders into the Beast’s castle during a blizzard, and he is given food and shelter. When the man leaves, he takes a rose to give to his youngest daughter, Beauty. The Beast is enraged and tells him he must either stay or one of his children must take his place. Beauty takes her father’s place, and eventually falls in love with Beast. When Beauty admits that she loves him, Beast transforms into a handsome prince.

            This book was made using paper engineering. The illustrations have a stained glass look to them, and they are absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite illustrations is a full two-page spread of the Beast’s head. The details are amazing, and the use of jagged lines adds to the Beast’s ferocity. Robert Sabuda also uses types of spot art pop ups to help tell the story.

            The words in this book are not basic, and the story is actually kind of long. I would recommend this book for children ages 6-11. Younger children would definitely enjoy this book, but it would have to be presented to them in a read aloud format possibly over a couple of days. I think this book would be a great way to introduce fairy tales or traditional literature to the class. Children need to know what traditional literature is and why it is important. Teachers could also talk about selfishness since Beauty’s other sisters were so selfish in the book and ended up unhappy. There are also several tier 2 words in this book, so teachers could use this book purely for a vocabulary study. Words such as ravenous, ablaze, and lush are scattered throughout the story.