Product Description

The Pied Piper pipes the vilage free of rats, and when the villagers refuse to pay him for the service he exacts a terrible revenge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7788380 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover

From Publishers Weekly
The townsfolk of Hamelin, Germany, as presented in Lemieux's ( What's That Noise? ) mannered oil paintings, are a sharp-featured, unsavory-looking lot. And appearances do not deceive: greedy and selfish, they spend most of their time eating and drinking, and they believe that "their children only take up time and cause trouble." But trouble acquires new meaning when, on the day before Christmas in 1283, thousands of rats invade the town, raiding holiday feasts and eating everything in sight, including "pillows, books, buttons, chairs and tables." They even "bit people in bed so that no one could sleep." Lemieux does justice to this timeless tale with a sprightly text and arresting illustrations. Exaggerated proportions and skewed perspectives nod at the medieval setting; the stern interiors of Hamelin are decorated in muted tones, while carnival-like colors highlight scenes featuring the Pied Piper. An endnote summarizes the historical event behind the legend and also offers various interpretations of the disappearance of the Hamelin kinder . All ages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-Despite the availability of several illustrated retellings of the legend, this one is a welcome new addition. While departing somewhat from the version memorialized in Robert Browning's poem, which itself changes the few solid facts upon which the story is based, Lemieux tells of the medieval German town inexplicably overrun by rats one Christmas Eve. She relates the events in simple prose that is ideal for reading aloud. The greedy and selfish townspeople pressure the Mayor into offering a thousand gold pieces for eliminating the pests. When the mysterious stranger pipes the rats to their death by drowning in the River Weser and is denied his promised reward, he takes his revenge by piping the town's children away, never to return. The stylized oil paintings are softly colored, yet filled with light and movement. Most are double-page spreads, which dramatically bring the story to life. One, of the piper's feet surrounded by scampering rats, is particularly effective. An excellent choice for all collections.
Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
This Canadian artist's simple retelling is accessible if not especially distinguished. But her vigorous oil paintings--with a pleasing palette of rosy brick, periwinkle blue, and more delicate greens--bring new life to the familiar tale. The villagers' horror of the waves of rats is caricatured with a sly, nicely understated humor; the piper is nicely raffish and mysterious; and the limning of both settings and figures has an appropriately medieval flavor. An attractive additional version; the elegant type style, perfectly in harmony with the angularity of the illustrations, is particularly felicitous. (Folklore/Picture book. 4-9 -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.