cover image The Steadfast Tin Soldier

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

JooHee Yoon. Enchanted Lion (Consortium, dist.), $22.95 (64p) ISBN 978-1-59270-202-2

In a visually striking and fittingly dark interpretation of a tragic fairy tale, a one-legged tin soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina. After falling from a window, the soldier begins a circuitous journey, eventually swallowed by a fish. Colored in bold reds, blacks, and grays, Yoon’s angular mixed-media prints highlight the soldier’s stoicism and the perils he faces. Yoon (The Tiger Who Would Be King) confronts the story’s darkest moments head on: when a cook cuts open the fish and discovers the soldier inside, its blood and entrails pour out grotesquely. And, as in the original Andersen, the soldier and ballerina’s relationship ends in fire, as they are incinerated in a stove. Ages 6–9. (Nov.)