I have four children and a large collection of childrens' books, including some wonderfully illustrated classics. However, this book has the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen. I am a fan of Kinuko Craft's other books, but this one truly oudoes them all. Sleeping Beauty is a wonderful treat for kids, and anyone who appreciates truly beautiful art. Its classic story line and amazing illustrations make it the best bedtime story book I've seen.

The beginning of Sleeping Beauty reminds me of the classical myths of ancient Greece regarding prophecy: told that their daughter will prick her finger upon a spindle and die when she reaches the age of sixteen, the King and Queen order even spinning wheel in the land to be destroyed. In a classical myth trying to thwart a prophecy never works and sometimes, as in the case of Jocasta, can actually make things much worse. But in this fairy tale the Princess Aurora's fate has already been changed by the wish of the final fairy, so that she will not die, but rather sleep 100 years.

In this edition of "Sleeping Beuaty" author Mahlon F. Craft tries to embellish the familiar tale with some new touches: the King and Queen get to lay their beloved daughter to rest before they too fall asleep on their thrones; the princes who try to enter the barrier of brambles disappear, never to be seen again, rather than simply being unable to hack their way inside. However, the story is incidental in this case because of the exquisite illustrations of Kinuko Y. Craft. You will probably just forget to read the story the first time through this book because you will get totally enthralled looking at the accompanying art work.

There are nineteen illustrations done for "Sleeping Beauty," most of which are full pages or two-page spreads. The artwork for this book was prepared by using oil over watercolor on illustration board. These are what you would call finely detailed illustrations. I especially liked the way the soft gold of Aurora's hair is usually highlighted by the yellows and golds in her dress, as well as the way Craft plays with the light to give these pictures a sense of luminosity. The two-page spread of the prince awakening the Sleeping Beauty with a kiss looks like something from the Golden Age of Illustration in the first half of the century (like Howard Pyle, only better).

The five stars are for the artwork. Ms. Craft's work is brilliant and, as always, I find no fault with it. The style in this book reminds me of flemish tapestries, though some paintings seem to have a very strong Renaissance feel to them. Also noteworthy are the illuminated letters that introduce each page of text. They rival those of Medieval times. They employ a labyrinthine quality and I enjoyed gazing on these letters repeatedly, as I did the large paintings.

In addition to technical achivement with her lush details, Ms. Craft demonstrates a strong ability to tell a story with pictures in this volume. I very much admire this aspect to her work and I think she uses extraneous details wisely. Ms. Craft's details always enhance the narrative. They add something without giving the sense of simply being tacked into the works. For example, a mermaid child on the fountain goes through the enchantment with Beauty and leaves a little something to wonder about. This character is shown on a fountain in a painting in the opening where Beauty is playing a 12-stringed instrument. You wonder if the child is real or a statue. Later, you can the watery little thing sleeping peacefully inside the fountain when the prince arrives. I found this element to add a bit of mystery and a sense of old fashioned enchantment that has ancient, classical roots.

Another character that lives in the paintings is the German Shepard Dog that you can see clearly sleeping at Beauty's side. He's hardly noticeable, but he is depicted earlier, in a scene with the fairy. Evidently, this handsome dog is left behind to guard the princess. He's even seen in the last full page painting, adding a symbolic element of domesticity and safety, as he sits there and calmly gazes at the reader from his corner. I found him charmingly reminiscent of flemish Renaissance paintings.

I think that Mahlon Craft tried to do the same thing with his ancient frog. This frog swims with Beauty's mother, and to repay her for her songs, he fortells the birth of Beauty. I think I missed the frog's real meaning, if there was one. I found him distracting, creating a slow start for the book. The frog only seemed to be added in for the sake of stretching Mr. Kinuko's narrative, of giving the reader the prophecy in the space of a page, not a paragraph.
Another strange element that didn't seem to mesh tightly into the rest of Mr. Craft's narrative was the negligence of Beauty's parents on her 16th birthday. They leave her alone as they've gone out to buy her a very special gift. How does that make any sense? They are characterized as having feelings for their daughter and they had been warned that she would be afflicted on this day. How could they have been so callous to have left her? They learned their lesson about ignoring the 13th fairy right away, you'd think that they would take these things more seriously! This is the one place in Mahlon's story that I thought showed a weakness and could have been more thoroughly developed.

I have read published reviews of other collaborations done by the Crafts in which Mahlon Craft's writing was characterized as a bit bland and not matching his wife's work for artistic merit. I have agreed at least in part with that assesment until I collected this latest book and got past the strange, bumpy opening. In all fairness, I think that Mahlon's star is rising with the remainder of this text. The strange little frog and the neglect of the King and Queen aside, Mr. Craft creates a lovely narrative that sounds elegant when read aloud. His use of language is soft, gentle and evocative, at times an almost perfect match for the sleepy tapestry of paintings Ms. Craft provides.

I was most pleased with how Mr. Craft's story is a love story, and most of the versions of Sleeping Beauty that I have encountered don't exercise this emotion in the narrative. The other stories seem to focus almost exclusively on magic and retribution- the prince is merely an agent of change and offers little else to the narrative. In this book, however, there is an element of love that gives the story much of its meaning.

Only one prince, her soul mate, could awaken Beauty, for example. He isn't some fellow who comes along at the right time, he's special! His special quality is why he gets through the brambles: the other princes only "disappear" (and don't die in vain, as they do in other stories.) The value of being true to your heart, of waiting as long as necessary to choose the right love to live your life with is strongly affirmed. Mahlon's Beauty gazes on her prince with "tender glances" and informs him that, "These many long years only you have filled my dreams, for none other could awaken me from my spell. Now in love's sweet name at last our hearts will together be eternally bound."

This is sweet stuff, more poetic than others of Mr. Craft's I think, and where his cleverness shines most brightly.

In sum, I see two stories being told. One is in paint. It is enchanting, the brainchild of a true master who excels at her craft. The other story is told in the text. It is not bad, by any means, and is fairly pretty. It sounds pretty and makes sense most of the way through. It is the work of someone who has gotten better but is still outshone by others in his field and by the glorious paintings that they seem to have been written to support but not equal in beauty. A truly extraordinary book would be the one where the text matches the paintings, but with Kinuko Craft this may be too great a challenge for the children's book industry's wordsmiths. In my opinion, few modern works ever come close to happy marriage of beautiful text and beautiful pictures, as we see in the example of past masters, such as Howard Pyle. I do hope the Crafts keep up the effort- we are in need of some new timeless classics for this generation of readers and readers in the future.

I've said it in another review and I'll say it again: every home should have at least one Ruth Sanderson book in their children's bookshelves, and her retelling of 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses' would be a pretty good choice.

The king of a prosperous kingdom has twelve beautiful daughters, but is confused at the state of their shoes each morning - each pair is worn through, although the door to their bedroom is locked. Where are the princesses going and how are they getting out? Many men are sent to guard the princesses with the promise that if they solve the mystery they may gain one of their hands in marriage, but all the young princes disappear by morning. But one day Michael comes to the castle as a helper to the gardener with the magical gift of an invisibility cloak given to him by an old woman on the road. Instantly smitten with the youngest princess Lina, Michael hides in the girls' bedroom under his cloak and watches them creep through a secret trapdoor, through glittering woods and across a vast lake to a castle... but how is a mere commoner supposed to inform the king of this and secure the love of his youngest daughter?

Ruth Sanderson once again brings to life a beautiful fairytale with her glorious oil paintings, making this a must for any bookshelf, or lovers of fairytales or fine art. Despite the fact there are twelve princesses, the illustrations are never cluttered, and Sanderson captures water, material, hair and even glances between one figure to another realistically, yet with a whimsical and fantasy touch. If there is one slight flaw, her colours are less bright than in other books - they are mostly pale yellows, blues or greens that give them a slightly washed out look when compared to the vividness of her other books such as 'The Golden Mare, the Firebird and the Magic Ring' and 'The Crystal Mountain', but this is most definitely one of her best narrative retellings. 'The Enchanted Wood' in my opinion still contains her best illustrations, but the story is rather weak. 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses' is the best choice for a melding of both art and storytelling skills.

Basically, girls will adore this, parents will love reading it, and if you take the time to persuade boys that is isn't a 'girly' book, then I'm certain they'll be intrigued enough by the mysterious midnight travels through the woods and the cunning of Michael to enjoy it too!

Having enjoyed looking at children's book since childhood this illustrated book is absolutely amazing. Each page is beautifully illustrated in Oil based paint, such exquisite artistry in a book made for children. The detail of each painting serves to tell the tale without words.

Ruth Sanderson's 'Twelve Dancing Princesses' is a fresh, deftly written take on the original fairy tale. The characters come alive, and the writing captures the childlike innocence of a fairy-tale world without being saccharine. However, what really makes this book stand out are the gorgeous illustrations. Sanderson's sumptuous oil paintings enrich the tale, and are works of art in their own right. Even without words, she knows how to create an atmosphere of mystery and of magic.

I read this book when I was 13. I am now 14. I understood this book and its message, and did not find it unsettling. However, people older than me can appreciate it as well. It is a beautifully written book that does not hide the pain and hardship of this time in history.

Two thumbs up! This book was a positive influence on me, being Orhtodox Jewish. It was also a positive influence on my best friend who is Christian. The story is perfectly set following one girl through her troubles of WWII.

The reader is brought back to the terror filled days and months that engulfed the Jewish community as the full impact of Nazi power became apparent - a gradual, relentless process that escalates suddenly with Kristallnacht. As the day to day events unfold, the reader is swept up in the personal terror and loss that each of the characters feel. It is a wrenching, beautifully written story. Older teens and adult readers alike will be captured by this book.

Originally published by New Impression in 1972, William Green has produced the ultimate guide for researchers who study the facts and details behind the ultimate failure of the Luftwaffe to win World War Two!
With all due respects to the History and Discovery Channels, Bill Green puts the lie to the History Channel's program asserting that the Messerchmitt ME 264 was going to be used to drop a radiological WMD on New York in late 1944. In fact it was 5 Heinkel He 177A-7's that were going to drop NERVE GAS on New York in a suicidal attack. This was later cancelled when General Patton's 3rd Army was about to over run the German air base at Bordeaux-Me'rignac!
As for the frequently mentioned theory that Hitler's insistance that Me 262 jet fighters be used as bombers was the reason that the Germans quickly lost the airwar over Europe, Green dumps that allegation into the toliet on Page 7 of this book in the Preface. The jet engines the Germans were using had a life of ten hours before they had to be completely overhauled! A fact that escapes most of the cable channel TV shows!
One facinating story from the book is the fact that a six engined Junkers Ju 390 V3 bomber in January 1944 flew from Mont de Marsan France to within 12 miles of the New York coast and returned to France in a non-stop flight of 31 hours! This aircraft weighed in at 166,450 lbs, fully loaded.
If you love technical details combined with a amusing view of the characters involved in the German Aircraft industry in WW-II, you will love this book.

Books on this topic do not get any better!

This book has everything! I wish all aviation history books covered the topic so completely. you'll never need another book on the topic.

World war two is history like other things we learned from books and media. But how many times could you find a reference is written by a person who actually flew those airplanes ? Especially they were not Allied's planes, they were German's military airplanes.

You could learn the speed, range or how many guns of each airplanes from tones other books, but you won't be able to learn the feeling to fly all of them by the same person from them.

This book was published long long time ago, but don't think the data and describtion is also old. Those experience is never faded away.

Besides being in the Guiness Book of World Records for the number of different aircraft types flown (over 500!) Eric "Winkle" Brown has authored several books concerning test flying and evaluation. "Wings of the Luftwaffe" reads like all the others...scholarly with a welcome dose of English wit! The inclusion of clear photos, profile drawings and cut-aways are further enhancements. Readers of the Air Enthusiast and Air International from the 1970's will recognize that "Wings of the Luftwaffe" is a compilation Mr. Brown's flight test reports printed in those magazines during 1970's and 80's. Having them in one volume saves much time in not having to look through back issues. No other book I know of captures the essence of flying these earliest of jet aircraft. Layman friends of mine have also responded enthusiastically to "Wings of the Luftwaffe" It is therefore highly recommended.

Besides being in the Guiness Book of World Records for the number of different aircraft types flown (over 500!) Eric "Winkle" Brown has authored several books concerning test flying and evaluation. "Wings of the Luftwaffe" reads like all the others...scholarly with a welcome dose of English wit! The inclusion of clear photos, profile drawings and cut-aways are further enhancements. Readers of the Air Enthusiast and Air International will recognize that "Wings of the Luftwaffe" is a compilation Mr. Brown's flight test reports printed in those magazines during 1970's and 80's. Having them in one volume saves much time in not having to look through back issues. No other book I know of captures the essence of flying these earliest of jet aircraft. Layman friends of mine have also responded enthusiastically to "Wings of the Luftwaffe" It is therefore highly recommended.

I was attracted to Portraits of Our Past in order to expand my knowledge on the true history of the founder of my company, Berlitz. However, half way through the first chapter I had forgotten all about my first motives as I found myself totally absorbed into a world where oppression and second rate citizenship were unable to dampen down the spirituality and ingenuity of German Jews. Portraits of Our Past contains a detailed look at the everyday lives of the writer's own family and friends dating back over the last 3 centuries. A must read for anyone with an interest in history, community, ingenuity, business and spirituality.

My father was born in 1904 in a house next to the synagogue in a small village in southern Germany. As the only child and a male, he was born "with a silver spoon in his mouth" and enjoyed his status by constantly getting into trouble with his friends and cousins. But not only did he describe his childhood pranks in an idyllic way, he also told tales of a small place where all the inhabitants knew each other and where Jews and Gentiles lived in harmony. Since my father's stories were in such contrast to those memoirs written later I often wondered if his wonderful boyhood was only the product of his immediate world or if life in these remote villages was so much better than the anti-Semitism of the cities. As a librarian and a tenacious researcher I began to look for an answer in the literature but could not find anything written in English about the history and society of rural Jews from non-rabbinical families.Just recently I have found a meticulously researched and detailed look at the lost culture of the Jews in rural southern Germany. Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside by Emily Rose (Jewish Publication Society, 2001) describes the socioeconomic, political and historical lives of my grandparents and great grandparents and opens a window to a distinctive way of life not previously documented. This discovery is even more ironic since the author is a descendant of a family that settled in Chicago in 1857.From 1994-1999, the author spent two months each summer in Germany discovering her heritage and the lost world of rural German Jews. She eventually located 2,600 documents in Wurttemberg archives, some with only a line or two of relevant information, some with hundreds of pages. She examined 1,600 books in English and German. Materials had to be laboriously translated from Judeo-German, Hebrew and German, and about 30 people helped to translate the materials.The historical material is complemented by an excellent chapter on traditional Jewish life in the villages and small towns providing interesting information and local details of social and religious life. The final chapter, a "Blueprint for Researchers," is important for all researchers of German families. The author's work took years to accomplish, and knowledge of precise research techniques would have saved her "many hours of frustration."A notes chapter and a bibliography complete the book, which offers more than 75 photographs, maps, drawings, and documents. Many additional families are mentioned, a boon for researchers of the area, particularly when one realizes that 54 Jewish communities and 32 religious elementary schools functioned in 1871 in Wurttemberg. Portraits of Our Past is a unique example of how a simple genealogical research project developed into the social history of a lost community and culture.(Jerusalem Post 10-19-01)As a librarian I recommend Portraits of Our Past as an excellent scholarly resource that is accessible to all readers...

This is a wonderful, warm, caring book about life and family and problems in the old country and about coming to America to start life anew. The author was inspired to write the book by the two old portraits of ancestors that hung in her childhood home. For five years she researched in the U.S. and Europe about her own ancestors and about the social, political, economic and religious forces that affected them. What she produced is a marvelous book that uses her own ancestors as a sort of everyman to take the reader through the experiences of daily life, social and political struggles, economic disruptions, religious strife, etc. in rural Germany in the 1800s. Anyone with German or German-Jewish ancestry will find this book enlighting, heartwarming, and sobering. The author truly succeeds in the difficult task of making history come alive. Other features of the book include lots of interesting and unusual illustrations, appendices on traditional Jewish life in the villages, guidelines for famly history researchers, and a lengthy bibliography.

Incredible. Everything you've ever wanted from a band that time forgot, but never get. Really well written, with the ring of truth and a great sense of humor. Some great cold war stuff too. Maybe this is what Johnny Rotten was refering to when he talked about going under the Berlin Wall. Such a strange, interesting story, that now I've read the book, listened to the CDs over and over, even saw one of the guys walking around NYC with a baseball cap on and still have a hard time believing all this really happened. But right there in the book is a photo of a tonsured Dave Day comparing notes with a spit-curled Bill Haley; and there's even a German poster advertising, in clockwise order, an album from The Who, Hums of The Loving Spoonful, Fresh Cream, and lo and behold, black monk time.

After reading this book and listening to the CD of the same name, readers/listeners will say "The Velvet who?" This is rock and roll at its strangest, most twisted and rebellious. Mr. Shaw's story borders on the fantastic, but it really happened! Five GIs shaving their heads and dressing in black and pumping out punk music a decade before the Sex Pistols, the Clash et al. Who woulda thunk it? This is truly an essential addition to any rock musicologists library.

Eddie Shaw's book, BLACK MONK TIME, is an in-depth look at the mutation of a standard 60s rock n roll group into the first punk band. As bassist for the Monks, he is able to give readers an inside look at the dynamics of a working rock n roll group. His prose really starts to catch fire, appropriately enough, when the band begins to undergo radical changes; both musically and satorially. Fans of the Velvet Underground to the Sex Pistols should give both the book and the Monks sole album (entitled BLACK MONK TIME also) a whirl.

Many of the mischling women interviewed in this book state that the young people of today, especially Americans don't have any feeling whatsoever for what happened in WWII. Sadly, they are correct in that we learn about the war, but we don't learn about real life during the war. Facts and technical outlines of battles can only give one the surface of the struggle. To dig deeper, you need to read first person accounts such as the ones given in this book...stories of persecution and oppression that will make the war seem all too real. The paper thin line of distinction between Germans and Jews comes to life here with the children of Jewish/Christian parents who are ranked according to the amount of Jewish blood they carry...first degree half-Jew or second degree quarter-Jew. Most are saved from the concentration camps by their affiliation with their Aryan (German) family, but all suffer some amount of anti-semitism and persecution under the Third Reich. This is a revealing portrait of the fate of the mischlinge, a people who are often forgotten in the gruesome and humiliating saga of the holocaust.

I was sincerely moved by the personal, touching images of such a horrible time in history. So many of us who grew up after the War know this time only from a panoramic, impersonal view: newsreels, Hitler, Nazis, trains, faces, bodies, battles, movies, history books, all of it frightening and sad; stark images we can never forget or want to forget. But to hear these women tell the intimate stories of their lives, of their struggles, of their dealings with terror and the deaths of their loved ones, brings history into the heart. It's the first time I ever felt that I could, in whatever meager way, understand and perhaps sympathize with how these innocent people, one person at a time, one day at a time, one heart at a time, tried to survive this horrendous nightmare. More of us in this world today should know these stories. We should truly understand how living people were affected, not just how the images of their suffering were presented to us. We should want to give some love back in time, somehow, to help them live their time. We should want to share their heartbreak and their pain. As I read this book I wanted to do these things.

After reading this book I realized it wasn't just another Holocaust or nazi book. I had heard of the mischling before but only as a footnote in larger works. This is the first book I've read that really allows some of these little-understood victims to tell their story. The women's own words bring an immediacy and relevance that we can identify with even in today's world. The notion of a divided life is very real and at times frightening. Each woman's story touched me as did the author's autobiographical notes at the beginning.

As the title suggests, Reitlinger follows for the reader the inception and budding organization of the SS and other police or civil branches within an increasingly-menacing police state in Germany. The reader must read carefully through the first fifth of the book to avoid confusing names and relationships, but ultimately the actors are well defined. Every conversation or statement from the main characters is routinely cited from firsthand accounts. The book includes an extensive bibliography and a biography of dozens of characters in the upper echelons of the Nazi military, SS and civil bureaucracy. Reitlinger weaves a remarkable tapestry of places, names and events until we have a better understanding of the inner workings of the Nazi government, their secret orders of exterminating Jews and Slavs and other "sub-human" races, the often public denials of the concentration camps by members of the highest rank, the contests for power under Hitler, and the seductions and betrayals between officers and agents(like a nest of vipers) at the heart of the German Reich. An important scholarly addition to any WWII library, this book details the most insidious plots and conversations among history's most brutal mass murderers, the corruption of their officers, and the incredible processes of armies within armies, states within the state, and secret intelligence forces within the police and other ministries.

Well-written, consise, and highly credible.

This book provides a very accurate description of the facts, the tactics and the people who ruled the destinies of the Third Reich. The story of the SS is in fact the story of Nationalsocialism. The author displays a wide and precise knowledge of the events, and offers a complete vision of it, both global and detailed. The analysis spreads from the NSDAP takeover, the rise and fall of the Sturmabteilung (SA),the development of the Schutztaffeln (SS) and the Intelligence Services before the war, to the II World War, the role of Waffen SS (Armed SS) and the finally apocalypse which came over Germany, all through the period 1922-1945. It's really worth while, for instance, the acute descriptions of the RSHA (Reichsicherheitshauptamt-Reich Main Security Office), the SD (Sicherheitsdienst-Security Service) as well as its transformations through the war, the role they played with the SA in overthrowing constitutional legality of the Weimar Republic. In this book you can also realize who is who in Nazi Germany, the account of all the dramatis personae such as Himmler, Heydrich, Kaltenbrunner, Muller, Schellenberg, Ohlendorf,..., as well as the Waffen SS generals, their rank and position in the widest and most complex totalitarian organization ever created, except perhaps the KGB. To draw a conclussion, a wonderful exposition of what the SS was in its origins and what it became: a Staat in Staat, a State inside a State. Definitely, a non replaceable book.

It's been over thirty years since Gerald Reitlinger's 'The SS. Alibi of a nation, 1922-45' was published and yet it still remains one of the most informative and important books on the subject of Nazi Germany and the SS. In 1945-6 the Nuremburg court ruled that the SS was a criminal organization and membership itself was a crime. Reitlinger argues that this was a mistake- in criminalizing this one organization, the court all but absolved the other bureacratic agencies that contributed no less assiduously to the 'Final Solution,' and provided a nation that willingly followed Hitler with the ultimate scapegoat. Throughout the book the reader is introduced to lesser known, though no less responsible, members of Hitler's Reich- Martin Luther, Walter Schellenberg, and Gottlieb Berger are just some of the every-day bureacrats that allowed such terror to reign supreme in Germany for twelve years. Truly a great work of history.

Pro's :

This book is excellent in historical, pictorial, and reseach. Very interesting written. Very helpful for shopping,what items are indigoues to each country. Great tool for teaching purpose.

Contra:

Some of the recipes are not working to well accuracy, refinement, would need some revision.

Sincerely M.B. Instructor

This book is excellent! It is thorough, comprehensive, beautifully illustrated, and even includes local dialects. I highly recommend it to any fan of Germany, German cooking, or cooking in general.

This book is a must-have if you have any interest whatsoever in traditional German cookery. Do not hesitate for a moment to buy this book or give it as a gift. If you've been looking for a book on the gastronomic history and culture of Germany, this is it. I've spent a very long time waiting for a book like this. This is just a completely stunning volume. It breaks the country down into 16 separate geographic regions, and highlights the gastronomic contributions from each of these areas. A great reference if you are going to try to incorporate more traditional German ingredients and skills into your own cooking style. The photography is the best. It is lush, colorful and absolutely gorgeous. Although this is not exactly a 'recipe book' per-se, the recipes that they have included for examples are lovely, traditional recipes. (Including twelve kinds of dumplings!) Luckily enough for us they have resisted the damnable tendency of American food writers to try and "lighten up" traditional recipes for "modern tastes". Bravo! And, they have thankfully included both US and Metric measurements for us poor Americans. The entire book has a lovely European feel to it, with superior printing and binding (of course, since it was bound and printed in France.) This is the cream of the 'Culinaria' series, and without a doubt, the best book of German gastronomy I've ever seen. It will be on my shelf for a long, long time. I loved it!