About this item
"Phelans noir-esque adaptation of the classic fairy tale is atmospheric, clever, and touching. . . . A stunning, genre-bending graphic novel." - School Library Journal (starred review) . The curtain rises on New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words: "Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL."
About the Author
Matt Phelan made his illustrating debut with Betty G. Birney's (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster) . Since then he has illustrated many picture books and novels for young readers, including by Eileen Spinelli (Dial) , by Alice Schertle (Harcourt) , and by Susan Patron (Simon & Schuster) winner of the 2007 Newbery Medal. Matt studied film and theater in college with the goal of one day writing and directing movies. But his first love was always drawing, and the more he saw the wonderful world of children's books, the more he realized that this was the place for him. Being an illustrator is in many ways like being an actor, director, cinematographer, costumer, and set designer rolled into one. Matt writes: "I have a fascination with the decade of the 1930s. The movies were learning to talk (and in the case of King Kong, growl) , the music was beginning to swing, and the nation was thrown into tremendous turmoil. On one hand, you see a level of suffering documented in the dramatic and gritty photography of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. On the other hand, consider what the American public was flocking to see in the movie theaters: the glamour and grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing in a series of perfect musicals. For my first book as both writer and illustrator (coming in 2009 by Candlewick Press) , I naturally gravitated to this complex decade, specifically the strange world of the Dust Bowl. "
