The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Softcover

Littledale, Freya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590450506 ISBN 13: 9780590450508

Publisher: Scholastic, 1992

Synopsis

Ichabod Crane, a superstitious school master, falls in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, but a headless horseman scares him away

About this title

Review

Abridged but not rewritten, the classic tale is decorated with a plethora of very small, comically gothic cartoons that add an air of spooky grotesquerie. An overall color scheme of pale browns and oranges adds a properly autumnal air to Sleepy Hollow's knobby woodlands, and the supporting cast includes nearly as many ghosts, toothy imps and the like as it does human figures. Grimly's not much for verisimilitude - party guests at the Van Tassels include African-Americans, and there's a glimpse of a generic Native American earlier on - but burly "rantipole hero" Brom Bones looks rightly massive next to the exaggeratedly gawky figure of Ichabod Crane. The Headless Horseman not only sports a particularly eerie-looking twig between its shoulders but rides a red-eyed, demonic steed, and in three views on the final page the decayed schoolhouse has a decidedly haunted air. Still, this is not a particularly scary rendition, and because its text is chopped into scattered, easily digestible passages tucked between or inside the panels, it may have more appeal to less-able readers than full versions. (Fantasy. 10-12) (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author

Gris Grimly lives in Pasadena, California, where he runs the Mad Creator Studio. He is also the illustrator of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving), and, more recently, the bestselling picture book The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman. For more chills go to Gris's website at madcreator.com

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590450506
• ISBN 13: 9780590450508
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Hall Melanie W.