New Book: King Thrushbeard illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

King Thrushbeard by Brothers Grimm (Author), Irina Dobrescu (Illustrator) was released earlier this month. I have lots of illustrations to share.

Have I mentioned how excited I get when I see picture books of lesser known fairy tales? Well, most fairy tale pictures books excite me, but books like this one have an edge. While I have an admitted small obsession with fairy tales, I don't let this spill over too far into my social life. My immediate family and most intimate friends know what I do. The rest mostly don't. I mention the term fairy tales and they think I am frolicking at Disney World and these days also fangirling ABC's "Once Upon a Time" because that is how the world perceives fairy tales. If I am in the mood, I'll shock them with some Sleeping Beauty history that isn't suitable for a picture book. Sometimes I just let it go. Most of the time, I just remain vague.

But I have a bevy of children in my life and I like to expose them to some fairy tales. Books like this one help me share them with the younger ones especially. Four-year-old Kensie is getting a regular diet of these now and amazingly she sits and listens despite believing she is Frozen's Elsa incarnate. I have this book now on my wishlist as one I would love to share with her. I think she will love King Thrushbeard when I introduce it to her.

Of course, you can always read and study a little King Thrushbeard on SurLaLune. If anything, you'll gain an appreciation for Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and its folkloric roots.

Book description:

When a beautiful, but conceited, princess cruelly turns down each of her suitors, her father, the king, forces her to marry a beggar. But a life of hard work and love soon teach the princess a valuable lesson and her hardness gives way to kindness and compassion. And through loving eyes, the princess is surprised to see who her husband really is.