Fabrics of Fairy Tale: Stories Spun from Far and Wide (Hardback)

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

Each story is a traditional tale that involves some kind of fabric or material motif. For example, the first story is Armenian and features a classic tale of a prince marrying a wise and beautiful shepherd girl. When disaster strikes their happy land, they are saved by a special carpet, woven with a secret message. In another story it is a cloak of feathers, batik cloth in another. Each tale is preceded by a very well set out story of the material itself, how silk is made and the history of it, for example. The stories are genuinely from far and wide, from the oral traditions of Hawaii, Indonesia and China among others. There is very little chance that they duplicate stories children have read before, but they all share the magical fairy tale element that children will be familiar with. Perhaps most magical of all are the illustrations. They are all photographs, each one made up of collages, weavings, embroidery - all painstakingly hand-fashioned. The style and materials of each creation is suited to the story and the culture that it's from - batik for Indonesia, silk for China. Children may well be inspired to try their own creations, if only by sewing old buttons on to scrap fabric; they'll enjoy designing and producing textile patterns. The tales themselves, the stories of fabric production and the fabulous pictures have been thoroughly researched, and the bibliography and references at the back may draw more interested readers on to further sources. (Kirkus UK)