Individual reading level: grade 2-3 ( )

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Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairytales. It tells a story about a father who was traveling a long way from his home while eventually stopping at a castle. As he was leaving, he picked a white rose for his daughter. While he was picking the flower a beast jumped out of the bushes and demanded he bring Beauty to him, or would die. Beauty ended up falling in love with the Beast. When she married him, he turned into a prince. The author did really good with illustrations in this fantasy read. ( )

This book is about a girl who is viewed differently in her village, when her father does not return home from a trip to the market she becomes worried and sets out on a adventure to find him only to stumble upon a castle where a prince once lived but is now cursed into being a beast until he can learn to love others and a lady share her love for him. Belle the young girl falls in love with him and also saves her father. The beast is returned into a prince. THis is a great book for the first grade level. On of my favorite books of all time. ( )

This book was one of my favorites for a few reasons. One of the reasons I loved this book is because the illustrations go along with what the text on the page is saying and they are beautiful to look at. For example, on page 9 something bad happens to Belle's father "'Phillipe! Take me to him!' she cried, leaping astride the exhausted horse. Without a pause the animal thundered off toward the woods." The illustration on this page captures the fright Belle is facing as well as how much of a hurry she is in to save her father.
Another reason I love this book is because the text is written in a way that is easy to read and neat. The beginning of the book also talks about the background of what happened to the Prince which is written in a different type. It has a more elegant type style than the rest of the book which I like because it separates the story in order to avoid confusion.
Finally, I love this book for its powerful central message that beauty is found within. This is such an important message to send to everyone, especially children because it will make the world a better place if people do not judge others based on their appearances. ( )