The Sea King’s Daughter was a cute and short retelling of Russian folktale with beautiful illustrations.

Rich illustrations adorn this fairytale. It feels like a fairytale in its narrative style, and its near-miss ending. I also enjoyed the historical information the author included at the end.

Possible Objectionable Material:
A man jumps into the sea and would have drowned were this not a fairytale.

Who Might Like This Book:
Lovers of fairytales and Russian stories.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC. This book also reviewed at http://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-panoply-of-picturebooks.html, Amazon, Goodreads, and Librarything.

In medieval times, the city of Novgorod the Great, there is a poor musician who sits by the river Volkhov playing his music and longing for love. He is often called upon by the rich to perform. His payment for music is "eat all the food you want"and is given a few coins. One day as he is playing by the river, the Sea King appears and invites him to his palace to play his music. The Sea King gives him a gold fish in payment before he goes to play his music for him. When he does go down and plays for the Sea King, his music so delights the Sea King, he offers him a daughter to marry. Will he marry? If he does, what will happen to him? If he doesn't marry, will he go back to his beloved city?

This is a Russian folk tale. The illustrations are gorgeous and creates the perfect mood for the story. A short history of Russian folk tales is given at the end of the book. The enchantment of this book makes it a worthwhile read for all regardless of age!

The art work in this book is breath taking! The story was pleasant , and my youngest daughter went to school and told her teacher about this book, her teacher ordered the book from amazon! Ty for allowing me to review this book and was able to share this with teachers.

The Sea King’s Daughter is a lovely Russian tale about a famous legendary figure, Sadko, a merchant-musician who finds himself playing for the Sea King in his deep-sea kingdom. Delighted by his music, the Sea King offers him one of his daughters in marriage. Torn between his love for Novgorod, his hometown, and the promise of love from this beautiful princess, Sadko must decide which world he wants to live in.

This reedition is a beautiful picture book. Not only are the illustrations beautiful and vivid, the text is also well written and easily understandable by the youngest. It is a very well-crafted children’s book that will appeal to both kids and adults.

I particularly enjoyed the notes at the end of the book. It gives the reader more historical and cultural background about this Russian tale.

I chose this book because of the interesting cover. It is not usually a book I would chose so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. The illustrations are beautiful and unique and could pass for the classic paintings in museums. The story reminded me a bit of the story of Persephone but with merfolk with other legends and fairy tales adding elements.

I liked this story as a kid, and I still do. The art is one of my favorite part of the book, it fits along with the story. I always enjoy a good classic story.

4.5 stars

I have always loved reading Russian folktales and when NetGalley offered the timeless classic “The Sea King’s Daughter” by Aaron Shepard along with gorgeous artwork by Gennady Spirin, I was so excited to check this little baby out and I was not disappointed by the results!

SUMMARY

Once upon a time, in the city of Novgorod the Great in Russia, there lived a poor but contented musician named Sadko, who would usually play his twelve string gusli during various parties that he was invited to. Everyone at the parties would happily dance to his music and Sadko was content in learning that his music was causing so much joy for the people of Novgorod! One day however, Sadko wanted to find a wife, but none of the Maidens at the parties would marry him due to him being poor. So, when Sadko started playing his gusli over the River Volkhov, the mighty Sea King suddenly popped out of the ocean and invites Sadko to play at his underwater palace. Sadko decides to go to the underwater palace, but once he gets there, the Sea King offers Sadko a chance to marry one of his daughters and stay in his kingdom forever.

Will Sadko marry one of the Sea King’s daughters and will he ever return back to his home in Novgorod?

Read this book to find out!

Wow! I was quite impressed with this book, especially with the numerous nods to Russian culture displayed in the story! I loved the fact that Aaron Shepard incorporated many Russian elements in this story as we get to see the various instruments that are shown in Russia such as Sadko’s gusli and I also loved the fact that the story uses the themes of dancing and music to be a major factor in Sadko’s life and how they affect his decisions to make a happier life for himself. I also loved the dilemma that Aaron Shepard brings to the story as Sadko has to decide if he wants to stay in the Sea King’s palace and marry his daughter or not marry the Sea King’s daughter and stay in his hometown Novgorod as it provides an interesting situation for Sadko and the reader is free to engage in deciding which decision will make Sadko happy. But my most favorite part of this book was the artwork done by Gennady Spirin as the artwork was simply gorgeous to look at! I loved the images of the citizens of Novgorod dancing to Sadko’s music as the citizens just look so cheerful whenever they are dancing and the artwork seems to glow off the pages as you see the people dancing! I especially loved the way that Gennady Spirin designed the underwater palace of the Sea King as it looked truly exquisite and beautiful and I enjoyed seeing the images of various underwater creatures like fish and crabs occupying the underwater palace. But what I loved the best about Gennady Spirin’s artwork were the exotic Russian clothing that the characters wore in the story as I often wanted to wear such clothing and it really brings out the Russian elements of this tale!

The reason why I took off half a star from the rating was because I felt that the story was slowly paced and it was sometimes hard for me to get completely engaged in the story because some scenes seemed to drag out too long. Also, for anyone who does not like bittersweet endings in stories, this story does have a bittersweet ending. I will not tell you what happens at the end, but I must admit that I found myself a bit unsatisfied with how abrupt the ending seemed to be.

Overall, “The Sea King’s Daughter” is a truly great book about finding your true happiness in the world and anyone who loves Russian folktales will definitely enjoy this story! I would recommend this book to children ages six and up since the length of the book might be too long for some smaller children to handle.

I thought this was a wonderful Russian Folktale. I enjoyed the amount of research that went into the retelling of the story and into the illustrations to make sure they stayed traditional. I liked the notes at the end as well that explained about the story, the city of Novgorod and about Russian Culture. I think this story would be good for all children, although I think that perhaps younger children may need their parents to help them read and understand. However, I think everyone can enjoy the stunning and magical illustrations that accompany the story. I also think this is a good addition for people who enjoy Russian Culture and who enjoy studying Russian Legends and Tales.
On a side note about the writing though… I felt the writing was a little disjointed and a little incomplete to me. The ending seemed rather abrupt to the detail in the beginning.

This is a beautiful story. Not only is the story magical, so are the illustrations. I love that there is a folklore in Russia behind this story, and the history behind it is included in the end of the book for the young readers to learn about the story that they just read. I think this story would be best in a classroom where it could also be used as an educational source to learn about Russian culture and folklore. I think this would also make a wonderful bedtime story as well.