Snowbear Whittington: An Appalachian Beauty and the Beast in Into the Forest

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Snowbear Whittington: An Appalachian Beauty and the Beast

William H. Hooks,

Victoria Lisi (Illustrator)

Start date: July 15, 2021

Finish date: September 14, 2021

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Aug 18, 2010 Ronyell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2010, fairy-tales-folktales, goodreads-group-reads, summer-100-book-challenge-2010

"Snowbear Whittington" is an Appalachian folktale that is based off of "Beauty and the Beast." In this tale, a young and beautiful girl named Nell must live with an intimidating white bear after her father takes a Christmas rose from the bear's flower patch. Afterwards however, Nell soon discovers that the bear is a cursed man named Snowbear Whittington and she soon falls in love with him. However, one day, Nell wanted to go back home, but she must promise the bear that she should not reveal the "Snowbear Whittington" is an Appalachian folktale that is based off of "Beauty and the Beast." In this tale, a young and beautiful girl named Nell must live with an intimidating white bear after her father takes a Christmas rose from the bear's flower patch. Afterwards however, Nell soon discovers that the bear is a cursed man named Snowbear Whittington and she soon falls in love with him. However, one day, Nell wanted to go back home, but she must promise the bear that she should not reveal the bear's true name to anyone. Will Nell keep her promise and will Snowbear Whittington ever change back into a man? Read the book to find out!

This was the first Appalachian folktale that I have ever read and William H. Hooks has done a great job at making this story extremely exciting and dramatic at the same time. What I loved the most about this book are the characters and Nell's character is the one that stood out the most as she is shown as a caring and devoted girl as she is strongly devoted to finding the cure to Snowbear Whittington's curse and I loved the devotion that Nell gives to Snowbear Whittington, despite his current condition. Another character that I was fond of was Snowbear Whittington as he was shown as an intimidating bear at first but when Nell got to know more about the human version of him, she realizes that the bear truly does have a good heart. I really admired Victoria Lisi's illustrations as they are both beautiful and detailed, especially when the book is set up as two pages have mainly writing on it with a few images and then the next two pages are full of images that details the events that happens in the story, which is similiar to the book set up of The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs. The illustrations that stood out the most was the image of Nell being carried off by a dozen blackbirds over a raging river and Victoria Lisi did a great job at making the sky look foggy and the river look very fluid and beautiful.

I really enjoyed "Snowbear Whittington" since it is dramatic and exciting, have beautiful illustrations by Victoria Lisi and is a different retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon which I believe that most children will definitely enjoy. I would recommend this book to children ages five and up due to the length of the book which might bored smaller children. ...more

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Oct 01, 2021 Margaret rated it really liked it

Shelves: fairytale-myth-inspired, classics, childrens, 2021-into-the-forest-challenge, historical-fantasy

A lyrical, picture book retelling on Beauty and the Beast. I love the illustrations, it takes an "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" type ending, which I prefer. ...more

1 like · Like · see review