Fairy Tales

The eagerly awaited new volume from the illustrator of A Christmas Carol and October Shadows: Classic Ghost Stories for Halloween Fairy Tales: A Botanical Treasury includes eighteen classic tales—from favorites like “The Little Mermaid” and “Sleeping Beauty” to lesser-known gems like “Little Ida’s Flowers”—illustrated in a wholly original way by artist John A. Rice. Each tale is paired with a full-page artwork executed in a combination of Rice’s signature oil pastels and pressed flowers and plants. This pairing of fairy tales and botanicals is a natural and brilliant one, for fairy tales abound with floral and botanical imagery, rich with metaphor and bridging the natural and the supernatural. Some of the flowers and plants in Rice’s illustrations are chosen for their literal presence in the tale—such as juniper, rampion, and rose—while others represent emotions or symbolic transformations within the story: fennel for clarity and protection, nettles for endurance and pain, clover for luck. Fairy Tales honors its literary heritage by returning to the old-world magic of shared tales, handcraft, and the simple ritual of pressing flowers between pages. Handsomely bound in real cloth, with foil stamping and a tip-on, this book will enchant all lovers of fairy tales, botanical art, and the natural world.