The Seven Ravens

by Brothers Grimm

Overview

In The Seven Ravens a peasant sends his seven sons to fetch water for his daughter's christening. Having lost their pails in the well, they are afraid to return home without having completed their task. The peasant, thinking they have gone off to play, curses them whereupon they are immediately transformed into ravens. When the daughter is grown up she sets off to discover the whereabouts of her long-lost brothers. This folk tale exists in multiple varieties and was adapted into film in 1937.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781974995745
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	608
File size:	301 KB
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), were German academics and authors who collected and published folk tales during the 19th century. They popularized such stories as Cinderella, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White. Their first collection of folk tales, Children's and Household Tales was published in 1812.

Place of Birth:

Hanau, Germany

Place of Death:

Berlin, Germany

Editorial Reviews

In one of the Grimms' more unsettling tales, a father's idle curse turns seven brothers into ravens, and their young sister, feeling responsible, sets out to find them. En route, she confronts a hostile sun (which ``ate little children'') and an equally savage moon; finally, she must sever her own finger and use it as a key for unlocking the door to a glass mountain where she meets her brothers. Sauvant's oil paintings, however resplendent, play up the story's bizarreness rather than help readers make sense of its peculiarities. Her work can be nightmarishly surreal, as in the transformation of the brothers from ravens into boys, or her evil-looking sun-her treatment may be artistically coherent with the text, but it does not serve the target audience. Ages 5-8. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 2-6-A newly translated and illustrated version of the tale of seven brothers transformed into ravens and rescued years later by their sister. Like most Grimm tales, this one lives up to its creators' name. The sun, whom the girl meets on her journey, is "hot and terrible" and eats children, while the equally nasty moon declares "I smell the flesh of a human child." Sauvant's illustrations suit the strange tale well. The unsavory characters are saved from outright scariness by the artist's sometimes humorously bizarre depictions. The moon is an odd fellow with an enormous yellow ball affixed, hatlike, to his head, while the sun glares majestically from behind a frowning mask and leans carelessly on a cloud. Only the kindhearted stars (attired in floppy slippers and dressing robes) help the girl by giving her a bone key to free her brothers. In a gruesome twist, she loses it and cuts off one of her little fingers to replace it. The picture of the ravens changing back into boys is nicely executed. With Bell's well-done translation and Sauvant's unusual illustrations, this should be a popular addition to fairy-tale col-

School Library Journal

Intense, scary, and beautiful, this picture-book version of a famous Grimms' fairy tale was first published in Switzerland. The telling is spare and direct; the oil paintings show a contemporary child in a world of nightmare horror. A little girl discovers that she was to blame for her brothers' misfortune. She sets off on a quest to free them from the spell that transformed them into ravens. She meets the sun, but he looks like a monster out of "Star Trek" ("he was hot and terrible and ate little children" ). The moon is cold and cruel and wicked. The kindly stars show her the way, but it's the girl herself who is brave and resourceful. She cuts off one of her fingers and uses it as a key to unlock her brothers' prison. Her sacrifice breaks the spell and transforms them back to boys again. In the final picture we also see that her finger is restored. Like recent versions of Andersen's "The Snow Queen", this is a story in which the girl is not the sleeping beauty--she's the hero on a quest to set the boys free.

Hazel Rochman

This stylish version of a well-known Grimm tale features a young girl determined to rescue her seven brothers, who have been turned into ravens as a result of their father's impulsive curse. On her way, she encounters a round, brightly lit boy (the sun) and a tall shepherdess carrying a goat (the moon). She also meets a dwarf wearing a jeweled crown (the stars), who directs her to the Glass Mountain, where her brothers live. With their sister's help, the birds don shirts sewn by their mother and are returned to their human forms. The language is spare yet elegant and beautifully complemented by the richly colored paintings. Gazsi's use of light and shadow and the nearly photographic clarity of the characters' faces are especially distinctive. This polished offering, which includes source notes, will be a welcome addition to any folktale collection.

Kay Weisman