Title: The Six Servants
Author: Brothers Grimm
Artist: Sergei Goloshapov
Author: Brothers Grimm
Artist: Sergei Goloshapov
Genre: Fairy Tale / Fantasy / Royalty
Year Published: 1996
Year Read: 2008
Publisher: North-South Books
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 6+ (Some Frightening Imagery)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
Year Published: 1996
Year Read: 2008
Publisher: North-South Books
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 6+ (Some Frightening Imagery)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
I have been reading the Brothers
Grimm’s stories for years now and I was surprised that I found a picture
book that adapted the obscure tale of “The
Six Servants.” Judging by the
artwork on the cover by Sergei
Goloshapov, you will seriously be treated to one heck of a nightmarish
journey through the land of fairy tales in this book!
In this story, a young prince hears about a queen who has a
beautiful daughter and the only way that any man will marry the queen’s
daughter is if they complete the three tasks that the queen sets for them. Unfortunately, none of the other suitors were
able to complete the tasks set by the queen and they ended up being beheaded for
their troubles. So, the young prince decided
to take a journey towards the cruel queen’s palace in order to marry the
princess and along the way, he meets six strange men who all possess unique
abilities such as one servant being able to eat everything twice his size and
another man whose gaze can shatter anything it touches. But as soon as the prince and his servants
make it to the queen’s palace, the queen decides to give the prince three
impossible tasks to fulfill before he marries the princess.
Can the prince and his servants complete the queen’s difficult tasks?
Read this book to find out!
This was a truly fantastic book from the Brothers Grimm about the power of trust
and courage and I loved the way that there was plenty of drama and fantasy in
this story as they made it really interesting to me! I especially loved the scenes where the
servants showed off their unique abilities such as the fat man eating all of
the oxen and wine in the queen’s cellar in one gulp and the tall man stretching
himself out to get to the Red Sea to retrieve the queen’s lost ring. This story strongly reminded me of the
Russian folktale “The Fool of the World
and the Flying Ship” (except a little darker in tone) as both stories
involved the main character meeting up with several strange people who all possess
special abilities that help out the main character with the tasks given to him
by a royal figure who is bent on making sure that the main character does not
marry their daughters. I really loved
the fact that this story has so many ties to “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship” since I am a huge fan
of “The Fool of the World and the Flying
Ship” and I have always enjoyed reading folktales and fairy tales that are
similar in tone and style to that story.
Sergei Goloshapov’s artwork
is both surreal and haunting to look at as the characters are drawn in
exaggerated styles, especially the image of the man that can see across the
world and has an extremely long neck that seems to look wobbly from the
reader’s point of view.
Parents should know that this book has some nightmarish
imagery as the artwork can be a little too dark and surreal for some small
children to handle. There are some
scenes in this book that can cause nightmares for some smaller children, such
as the scene at the beginning of the book where we see several stick figures in
the background being hung in the gallows after the text describes about the
queen chopping off the heads of the would be suitors who did not complete her
tasks. Parents might want to read over
this book first to make sure their children can handle the dark themes shown
throughout this book.
Overall, “The Six
Servants” is a fantastic book for anyone who is a huge fan of the Brothers
Grimm’s works and loves reading books that are dark and imaginative. I would strongly recommend this book to
children ages six and up since some of the imagery and content in this book
might be extremely disturbing for smaller children.
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