I love retellings, Beauty and the Beast is my favourite, and graphic novels so I was looking forward to this. For me, it was too short and there wasn't anything to make it stand out from other retellings. I did like the bit of diversity added and the artwork was really nice.

My 8 year old really enjoyed it, it was a good length for a quick one sitting read. He enjoyed the art and the easy to follow familiar story.

I'd recommend it for kids who enjoy fairy tales or graphic novels in general.

I didn't realize when I requested this book that a) this is a graphic novel, and b) that this book is roughly 30 pages long. That being said, it's beauty and the beast and I love everything beauty and the beast. Was is spectacular? Well yes, but again, that's because it's beauty and the beast. Would I have liked more out of it? Yes! Absolutely I would have. It was a nice, cute read, that I was able to read in between two longer novels. Which was a nice refresher in between the two books.

I was given a copy of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love retelling and I love graphic novels, but for me this read like a children's book with not enough to set it apart from other copies you might buy. It's entirely too short. There isn't enough time to develop the story of the characters. I enjoyed the diversity and the art style but the sisters names were a little too on the nose for me.

There isn't much to dislike, but honestly I just wanted more. The supplementary questions were nice, but again -- give the people more!

This was a quick, fun read with some super cute art. I loved that Beauty and her family were diverse though I think it would have been better if there had been more to explore, appreciate and explore their specific culture. Drawing them with darker skin was lovely to see but I do think more could have been done to make the family more fully realized and not just flat with a new shade.

I really like the way the graphic novel was constructed. It opens with instructions on how to read a graphic novel for new readers which I think is awesome. My students would definitely enjoy and benefit from the cute guide. I also loved the follow up questionnaire and art project. I do enjoy that the graphic novel is interactive in those ways.

As for the story, it was a familiar one with very minor changes. I wish they had gone just a bit further to push the story into a new realm. It also would have been great to increase the story a few pages. I think it could have posed as a greater challenge for children and a more full story. Overall, the series is something I'd definitely recommend to my students and the children in my life. It's fun, an unfamiliar medium for some and a way for the students and children I interact with most to see themselves in a story.

I really love re-tellings and also really love the Disney animation classic of Beauty and the Beast, so I was really hyped for this book, specially since the main character of Beauty is a young black girl. I really liked this, but I just felt like it was way too rushed, I would have liked to see a lot more from Beast and Beauty's relationship, and more of the relationship between Beauty and her sisters, which I thought were a nice addition to the story. Finally, the art style was really beautiful and appealing.

Beauty and the Beast is obviously taken from Beauty and the Beast. I think it is conceived for a smaller audience but still has strong beautiful themes.
Beauty is the protagonist: a black girl whose father lost everything and practically gave her away to the Beast. Beauty is obviously scared of this imposing beast. Bella tries to distract herself by playing, reading and taking walks. Obviously the beast knows that she is scared and therefore accompanies her every day to meals, reads with her, plays with her and walks with her. Unfortunately, his father got sick and needs Bella who runs to the rescue. On returning to the castle he finds the beast: a beautiful prince who loves it.

What's strange in this story many will ask. Well first of all the protagonist is black, a young black girl. Bella offers herself to a pact that her father made without blinking, tries to be happy seeing the glass half full even when he is practically in the house of a stranger. The beast represents a bit the saying "don't judge the book by the cover" or "the dress doesn't make the monk", in short it was a beast but it had a kind and compassionate soul.
Now why would you read this story to your children or brothers or sisters? It is a story about love that goes beyond prejudices, it is a classic revisited in 2020, with the same strong but more modern themes.

It was so short, I would love it if it was more complex, but it's a great way for young children to read about fairy tales. The drawings were really pretty.

A cute take on the tale of Beauty and the Beast, right away I was surprised that this version mentioned the two sisters of Beauty. They were good examples for children on how NOT to behave toward their siblings with greed and jealousy. I was a little disappointed that they weren't punished more for their avarice, but I digress. Beauty is the focus of this tale!

Her interactions with Beast were spot on, and I think it some good lessons were taught by her interactions with him that showed how you just got to get to know a person and not judge them right away based on appearances. The art was also quite lovely in the book and the words were simple enough I think it suits the age range for 6 to 8 year olds. The exercises at the end of the book were also thought provoking and would be good for first or second graders. I will definitely recommend this book to my relatives who are elementary school teachers for their students!

This was a short, fast retelling of Beauty and the Beast. What I liked about this one was that it's kept to the more classical story, where Beauty's siblings are the "evil" ones.
It's not a fleshed out story, though. Even if it's targeted at kids, more of the story could have been told. Now it was just a story about a young woman being mistreated by her family, having a weak father and falling in love with a guy she's just met. Today, the Beauty and the Beast-retellings should be more feminist than that, I think.

Thank you, the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this book!

I really enjoyed this graphic novel because of its art style and entrenching plot. I would highly recommend this to fans of graphic novels and odd, interesting stories.

For elementary school kids only. A very abbreviated (doesn’t add anything new really) retelling of Beauty and the Beast with activities for kids at the end. The price was listed at $22 which is very expensive for something the length of a single floppy comic.

I recieved this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

And ok... I didn´t liked it.

I love Beauty and the Beast always since I saw the Disney movie and always I liked to read retellings about that story. So I feel very excited about this graphic novel and then... nothing.

Sorry but it was extremely short, boring and very disappointed. Even the illustrations are not my thing, didn´t liked it at all.

I was excited for this but I really didn't get on with the narrative style. It is written for a much younger audience and in the NetGalley copy, the typography itself didn't fit well into the illustration style. The writing was also very young so I couldn't really get on board unfortunately. The illustrations are beautiful and I love the diversity but I didn't enjoy the reading experience.

This book was so easy to read. The format made it new and different enough even for a long time Beauty and the Beast fan like myself. All the best parts of the story was there, and some new moments were included as well. This would be a great primer for a kid to get them into seeing stories they like in fun new formats, plus it was so quick you can read it a few times through easily.

Very short retelling of the tale of Beauty and the Beast. It felt quite rushed, but then they managed the impressive feat of putting every necessary plot point in there on so many pages.

The art style is beautiful and I love that the characters aren't as white as they are in the most books I've seen. I think this is perfect for young ones trying to read on their own for the first time, or for a shared story time.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beauty and the Beast by Jessica Gunderson, 27 pages. GRAPHIC NOVEL. Picture Window Books (Capstone), 2020. $16.
Content: G
BUYING ADVISORY: EL - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Beauty’s two sisters are appalled at their new social station when their family fortune is lost. With optimism and selflessness, Beauty decides to take care of her family -- even when it means keeping her father’s promise to send her to the castle of a beast.
This retelling of Beauty and the Beast is a great introduction to graphic novels for young readers because it is a familiar story and there is an explanation of how to read graphic novels before the story starts. Gunderson further assists readers by including a list of words to watch for prior to the story and ending the book with writing prompts, discussion questions, and even a craft idea. While the simplified version of this classic fairy tale leaves out a lot of details, the message stays the same, and I think the ideas to engage with the story at the end are more important for young readers than the details.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This was a fun book to read. My favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast so I knew I was gonna love this. It was charming and cute and an interesting take on the classic tale. Highly recommend!

I'd like to preface this by saying that this has been my first graphic novel as an adult. I've been interested in getting more into the genre for a while and have finally given it a go.
Once I started reading, I quickly felt like I was not the intended demographic for this book, that felt geared towards much younger readers. It has been an enjoyable ride anyway, even though I felt like it was still too short and simplified. What I did really appreciate was the diversity in the main characters. I think it is SO important for kids and teenagers to see themselves in fairytales and the books they read in their formative years. We definitely need more and more of that.
Did I enjoy this? Yes. Was it written for me? No.
I'll definitely try other graphic novels soon!
#FairyTales #NetGalley

2.5 stars.

I want to preface this by saying that this book was okay, but definitely not for me.

It's a beautifully illustrated graphic novel re-telling the story of Beauty and the Beast. The artwork is gorgeous. And it is wonderful to see a re-telling that doesn't feature yet another all white family. Belle, her sisters and father are all non white which is great representation for non white children that may be more used to seeing these roles more traditionally filled by white people.

My only issue is that the book is very story light and simplified, most likely to appeal to children 5+ but I don't believe that just because a book is targeted towards children that it should be stripped of content. That said there are some good extras at the back of the book - questions targeted towards helping children have a better understanding of the story that they have read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

<em>Beauty and the Beast</em> by Jessica Gunderson is a graphic novel retelling illustrated by Thais Damião. This story follows the original story rather than the Disney version, thus including Beauty's two sisters, her father's attempted rose theft, and no Gaston. A book I would recommend for young or beginning readers, this <em>Beauty and the Beast </em>is definitely one I'm happy to recommend.

The story is told in a rather straightforward and simple manner, going through the whole tale incredibly quickly. You're not spending a lot of time to get to know the characters or to see them interact, but fortunately, the illustrations do a superb job of filling in the context for readers as they go through what is really a general summary of the events with <em>some</em> dialogue in between.

The illustrations are <em>gorgeous</em>, depicting a PoC Beauty, which I greatly appreciated. The only character whose artwork I wasn't entirely fond of was Beast's beastly form which, admittedly, I'm okay with. He's supposed to look like a monster, after all, and Damião still did an excellent job of portraying the character's emotions.

Given the age group that I'm expecting to be reading this story, I think it's all done exceptionally. For me, personally, the story is a bit on the simple side. I think, ultimately, what one gets out of this book depends on who is reading it. For young children having a bedtime story read to them who are just learning how to read, this is a pretty great book. For young readers who are at an age where simple stories are complex still, this is a pretty great book. For older kids and young readers who are a bit more advanced, it might be a little too easy.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

Review to go live on Reader Fox Blog March 21st, 2020.