From the Publisher
[This] edition illustrated with remarkable sensitivity makes available once more one of the most beautiful of allegorical fairy tales...The story is itself a key that will open to many children a door on their own imaginative experiences and the pleasure and mystery of allegorical speculation.” —The Horn Book
“A new edition illustrated with remarkable sensitivity makes available once more one of the most beautiful of allegorical fairy tales...The story tells of the girl and boy, Tangle and Mossy, who meet and travel together to a mysterious land. For a while their paths separate as Tangle encounters, one after another, the three Old Men—of the Sea, of the Earth, and of the Fire—and she grows wiser and more beautiful with each stage of her journey. Tangle is reunited at last with Mossy, who carries the golden key, and they reach the rainbow, climbing along it toward the 'country whence the shadows fall.' The story, full of dreamlike events and exquisite images, is itself a key that will open to many children a door on their own imaginative experiences and the pleasure and mystery of allegorical speculation.” —Horn Book
School Library Journal
09/01/2016
Gr 3–7—This classic, enigmatic Victorian fairy tale of two children who find, lose, and then find each other again as they search for "the place from which the shadows fall" is given a new treatment by Sanderson. The artist has divided the work into nine short chapters and illustrated it with more than 45 bold black-and-white scratchboard pictures. Mossy discovers the key he has heard about in his great-aunt's stories and is charged with locating the lock into which it fits; Tangle, a neglected orphan, follows a magical fish to a hidden cottage where a beautiful woman takes her in and lovingly cares for her. Here the two meet and venture on a quest, developing a deep friendship, then losing each other, until, with the help of special beings and magical creatures, they are reunited in a new life. Unlike Maurice Sendak's soft, evocative illustrations in an older edition (Farrar, 1967), Sanderson's is deeply textured and dramatic, enhancing the vivid imagery of the narrative with many full pages and spreads. An afterword by Jane Yolen provides a snapshot of MacDonald's life and explores her experience of the story over time. An illustrator's note describes how Sanderson came to reformat and pictorially interpret the mysterious tale. Young readers may be puzzled by the narrative but will likely enjoy the magic, intriguing characters, and richly detailed illustrations; older readers may recognize religious or metaphorical elements. VERDICT A lovely addition for fairy-tale collections.—Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Kirkus Review
2016-08-02
Scratchboard illustrations add atmospheric notes to MacDonald’s enigmatic tale of two children who grow old and then young again as they journey through magical lands.The 1867 tale is full of lyrical references to color: the titular key itself, for instance, along with a mystical rainbow shining with “shade after shade beyond the violet; while before the red stood a color more gorgeous and mysterious still,” and hummingbird-feathered fish that swim through the air and are transformed (when eaten, a weirdly macabre touch) to tiny angels that “throw off a continuous shower of sparks of all colors.” Rather than try to capture these, Sanderson chooses to use a medium best suited to conveying the story’s likewise significant themes of light and shadow. But for all the expertly modeled hair, faces, and foliage in her art, the rainbow, when it does appear, looks like a monochromatic sunbeam, and shadows in some scenes are obtrusively heavy. The story's metaphors are murky where the illustrations are not, though, and that, along with the ritualistic tone, will likely leave young readers in the dark. Jane Yolen adds a biographical sketch of the author; her critical reflections on different ways of reading the strange miniodyssey only underscore its obscurity. A Victorian-era artifact, available today in collections of the author’s works and served only partially, at best, by these new illustrations. (Illustrated short story. 9-11, adult)
