The Brave Little Tailor

by Andrej Dugin (Illustrator), Olga Dugina

Captivating images of an entrancing world retell the beloved Grimm Brothers' story about a tailor who must accomplish several impossible tasks in order to inherit the king's throne.

Genres: Picture Books, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Illustrator

Reviews

[Alberto Martín de Hijas]

Una versión del cuento clásico con algún giro interesante y unas ilustraciones brillantes en el estilo de los maestros flamencos (Vale la pena leerlo sólo por ellas)

[Rodolfo Zamudio]

Esta bonito. Nos enseña a ser personas de palabra.

[Kest Schwartzman]

This is -not- my favorite retelling of the story, but it might be my favorite set of illustrations for the story.

[Meltha]

I'd actually put this more at 4.5 if I could. The artwork is wonderfully strange. It reminds me a little of Dali and a little of Michael Parkes, but it's also entirely its own thing as well. I could easily spend a long time just looking at the illustrations except for one rather large problem: the pictures are too dang small. For some reason, unlike the glorious version on the cover, the interior pictures all have very broad white borders around them, and this shrinks their size so much that a magnifying glass is probably the only way to see the details, and then they aren't as clear as they should be. The story is a very old version, including the two giants killing each other, a unicorn stabbing itself into a tree, and a boar stuck in a chapel window, as well as his wife's attempt to have him killed. The squeezing of a stone and the bird trick aren't in this version. This would have been wonderful if the pictures were simply bigger (and perhaps a little less dark).

[Elbert]

I was truly disappointed by this version of the Grimm's fairytale The Brave Little Tailor. The tale was watered down in this picture book and the illustrations, though fantastic and surreal, were distracting and added nothing to the story. Despite it being a picture book, the image to text ratio was low and further weakened the telling of the tale.

In particular, I missed the cheese, bird, and tree scenes that illustrated the cleverness of the tailor. I pity any child who has this version read to them and misses out on the magic of the original tale. Just Google a free online version of the original tale, if you want to see just how much this story has been watered down.

[Ericka]

Le di cinco estrellas nada más por las ilustraciones. Esta versión del conocido cuento folclórico la utilicé para dar una lección de literatura infantil. Me di a la tarea de hacer investigación a fondo acerca de Olga y Andrej, y no me extrañó aprender que cada ilustración les toma de uno a cuatro meses terminar. Les recomiendo este y otros títulos donde aparece el arte de estos excelentes artistas.

[Arsnoctis]

Il sartorello coraggioso non è tra le mie fiabe tradizionali preferite, ma questo adattamento illustrato mi è piaciuto moltissimo. Non so se questa versione un po' surrealista, e ricca di frutti di arcimboldiana memoria, incontri il gusto di tutte le età, ma di certo incontra il mio.

[Aaron Becker]

The illustrations alone are worth the price of admission. Fanciful, majestic, and detailed.

[Sarah]

Very unique illustrations.

[Melanie Gaum]

Super weird but amazing art. Each illustration was intricately detailed and full of whimsical features, although many had nothing to do with the actual story.

[Deidra Chamberlain]

So beautiful, and the story is fun.

[Gira_Sole]

Un trato es un trato... y estos, se cumplen

[Toriq]

there was once a tailor who was working while eating some jam and bread.the sweet jam quickly attrached some flies.the tailor used a piece of cloth to hit the flies,killing seven of them.'wow!everyone should know about this!said the tailor proudly.So he made a girdle with the words, SEVEN AT ONE STROKE!.The next morning,he put on the girdle and set out to see the world.He brought along a piece of cheese which he kept in his pocket.Later,he caught a bird which he put in his pocket too.

[The Brothers]

This was a cute, if somewhat befuddling, fair tale about a tailor who ends up a king. He starts by bragging about killing seven in one blow (failing to mention that this refers to flies, not men) and because of this the king sets him out on a series of tasks which will get him half the realm and his daughter's hand in marriage.

Illustrations were fascinating! I'm not even sure what some of them were, but they were such fun to look at.

[Judy]

I never much cared for the story of the brave little tailor, and even with this highly original, somewhat surreal, art, the fairy tale doesn't fare any better. I imagine the original is more stunning. In my copy of the book, it's fairly lifeless and gray.

"Once upon a time in a far off land where things were often not what they seemed or as they were in other places, there lived a little tailor."

[Kat]

What in heaven's name is going in those pictures. They are incredibly amazing but so weird. I loved the idea that nothing in the story was what it seemed so neither was anything in the artwork. Still it was absolutely bazaar. Wonderful but strange. This would be 4.5 stars if allowed.

[Heather Anderson]

A kids book with illustrations based on Bosch paintings!!!! Amazing! The authors/illustrators comment in the forward that the illustrations for this book took six years to paint.

[Lanny]

Some of the most creative illustration work i've found.
It's not something I look for consciously but this is a Russian Husband wife team and they are quite amazing artists I think.

[Sarah]

So gorgeous. and a good German story.

[Monique]

I absolutely loved this book. The illustrations are amazing and highly imaginative! Its vision reminds me of the dream-like absurdity of a Terry Gilliam film.

[Katie]

Ornate and whimsical illustrations, a little iffy on the moral, everybody's white as can be, and medium level vocab.

[Angela]

Amazing weirdie pictures with projectile hats and face masks. The story was an old one for us.

[Mckinley]

IT's the same story but the cool thing about this version is diffinitely the illustrations.

[Heather]

Very interesting illustrations. My 7 year old was very interested and 'got' the story, but my littles only came around a few times for the 'weird' pics we were talking about. Neat story though.

[Alisa Kester]

Absolutely fantastic art.