A husband-and-wife team gives a fresh look to the tale of a woman who recognizes the kindness beneath the surface of a beast, with West African patterns, colors and architectural details.
In Beauty's narrative, first-time author Lee neatly telegraphs her father's mission ("Father had to hurry into the city on business"). Her sisters give him a "long list" of requests, but Beauty asks only for a rose: "How could I know his promise to bring me a single rose would change all our lives forever?" When their father seeks refuge from a storm at Beast's door, Pat Cummings (Talking with Artists) depicts a palace rising from the earth, in a pillar-like structure akin to the dwellings of Dogon country. The father spies a rose in his host's garden; the moment he plucks it, Beast appears for the first time.
Text and art work in tandem: As Beauty, watching her father leave Beast's castle, reaches out her arm toward him, Beast's arm reaches toward Beauty. She sees Beast only at dinnertime, and he anticipates her every wish, "But... I could not leave!" writes Lee. Cummings reinforces a feeling of imprisonment with elongated sculptures on the walls that evoke African masks and observe Beauty's every move. In an elegant conversion, both textually and visually, readers view through the palace's arched windows the passage of time as Beauty paces "all day, waiting anxiously" for a Beast who does not appear. By the time she discovers him in the garden and tells him she loves him, readers will be convinced. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness