The Seven Ravens

by Brothers Grimm Narrated by George Newbern

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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

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.)

School Library Journal

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-

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175794381
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Series:	Grimm's Fairy Tales
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

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