Metaphysics of Children's Literature: Climbing Fuzzy Mountains by Lisa Sainsbury (review)

Abstract

Children’s Literature Association Quarterly Zipes identifies a strong influence of Kafka’s droll humor in Brandt’s texts and illustrations. The black-andwhite pencil illustrations highlight the absurd and bizarre events of the fairy tales. Zipes is uncertain which specific translations Brandt used for the texts but notes that Brandt made modest changes to the tales. For instance, the witch in Grimm’s “Hansel and Gretel” is not killed, and Gretel eventually marries a king and becomes a queen. Only a few illustrations appear in color. They seem like they could have been inspirations for the Norse Gods and Giants (1967) and Trolls (1972) illustrated by Ingri and Edgar Pain D’Aulaire, Rodney Greenblat’s Thunder Bunny series, or the weirdly cartoony art of Kenny Scharf. Brandt’s illustrations have been praised for their eerie quality and considered to be as absurd and mysterious as dreams. While Brandt’s quirky illustrations are Zipes’s primary reason for reprinting this collection, these illustrations seem to fall in the second tier of Grimm illustrators, since many other talented artists including Wanda Gág, Arthur Rackham, Gustaf Tenggren, and Maurice Sendak have illustrated Grimm’s folk tales. More promising is the brief epilogue that provides a series of haunting images from Brandt’s literary fairy tale The Man with the Red Umbrella (1946). Zipes describes it as a story written in the Alice in Wonderland formula. One hopes Zipes will reprint this Brandt volume in the series.