by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 25, 2009

David Wiesner's illustrations have won him three Caldecott medals, according to Wikipedia. "Tuesday," "Flotsam," and "The Three Pigs" won the Caldecott medal, and Wiesner also won Caldecott honors for two other books - "Sector 7" and "Free Fall." But in 1987, he co-authored a book with his wife, Kim Kahng. It was based on a fairy tale captured by a British folklorist in 1890, which was in turn based on a ballad from the 1700s.

In fact, the story had inspired a single painting by Wiesner, which then later inspired him to re-tell the story in a book. Both the story and his illustrations reflect this fascination with the magic of fairy tales, and the first page shows a grand castle overlooking the sea. There's a princess looking over the hillside, watching her brother's ship sailing to explore the world. And inevitably, her father is enchanted by a woman who wants to be queen.

She'd jealous of the king's love for his daughter, and soon hatches a wicked spell. The step-mother "stole silently to the dungeon," and chanted a spell which curses the princess. ("Change love to fear, princess to dragon...") The princess is upstairs, presumably sleeping in her bed chamber. But turn the page, and her bed is filled - by an enormous, scaly dragon!

That's the picture that had inspired the book, with the transformed dragon napping peacefully - covered with scales - while the princess's attendants look on in horror. And she's got a dragon's temperament now, casting a fearsome shadow on the next page, as it slinks to a lair for a rest. "[B]ut soon enough it began to roam the kingdom, devouring everything in its path." A wizard urges the people to keep the dragon well fed - and to find the princess's brother, who's the only one who can break the spell.

Wiesner's drawn many strange sights, but I love his faith in his powers of imagination. There's peasants dumping barrels full of milk into a trough in the mountain's rocks - as the dragon slithers down to lick it up. The next page shows the noble brother, dressed in fine gold-lined armor as he receives word on his distant ship. When the witch casts her spells, skinny spirits fly from his fingers. And soon the witch has enchanted the princess-dragon, and she's shown in a spectacular attack on her brother's own boat.

And like a good fairy tale, it ends with a rhyme, as the princess reveals the way to break the witch's transforming spell.

"Oh, quit your sword, forget your fear,
and give me kisses three.
For though I am a loathsome beast,
no harm I'll do to thee."

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