East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North

This gorgeous edition of Norwegian folktales as illustrated by Kay Nielsen might be an absolute shoe in for my top books of the year list. Taschen’s art publications are always of high quality, but they surpassed themselves with this lush reprint. Nielsen’s illustrations are showcased alongside their accompanying stories wonderfully and the introductory essays provide some much appreciated context on the importance of Asbjørnsen and Moe’s work to collect and chronicle the folktales of Norway, so it is easy to see how this book was a smash hit when it was first published and why Taschen chose to reimagine it for the modern market. What I liked most about this book (besides the illustrations and quality of publication, of course) show more is the fact that the stories are actually readable. Many collections of this sort either cater to a child audience or become too academic in their transcription, in addition to collecting too many stories of the same sort which quickly becomes tedious to read in any attempt to read the collection cover to cover, but each story stands well alone and is easily accessible by readers of any age. My only small complaint is that Taschen chose to have captions for the images taken straight from the text of the stories, which I felt was alternatingly pointless (readers can either easily identify the match between image and text, or the specific image can apply to many parts of the story) and a wasted opportunity to provide more context and commentary extraneous to the text of the stories. show less

Classic Norweigian folktales are illustrated by Nielsen's carefully composed line and wash drawings with much success. Nielsen clearly draws inspiration from Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, and Japanese woodcut printers, but makes his own unique style from the careful use of colour and shading. For such simplistic compositions, Nielsen imbues them with a wonderful sense of movement, which is what gives his pieces a flare that earns him a place alongside the greatest illustrators of his age.

beautiful pictures, nice thick paper, but I don't think I've ever held such a STIFF book in my hands!
The stories are rather weird, with lots of repetition (which I suppose children love) but the wonderful illustrations make this a treasure.

I bought this book for the cover art, actually for the interior illustrations. The stories are somewhat disjointed and don't hold my interest as much as American or European fairy tales. I liked "The Lindworm" story. The artwork is stunning, so I will keep the book for that reason. Mr. Nielsen's work is amazing.

The author's version of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," a folktale I read from this volume, is generally how I remember hearing it as a child. This story is one of the earliest I remember my mother reading to me, and my memory holds a magical spot for its telling. Although the story to me now is pretty pathetic, involving a beautiful girl and a bear turned prince, the mystical elements of the north country and the white bear continue to draw me in.

Curricular connections: There are many retellings of this story, including a lengthy YA novel called East. Students could compare and contrast different versions of the story or make up their own. They could also critique the story, looking for characteristic elements of folktales.

Those are great stories with great morals. My only complaint is that so many of the stories sounded like they were variations of stories that came before.

There is no other illustrator like Kaye Nielsen.