THE MIGHTIEST HEART

Dial Books for Young Readers, 1998. 1st Edition 2nd Printing. Hardcover. Very Good+/Near Fine. Laurel Long color illus.. CONDITION: Mixed. UNREAD, but not perfect, 1998 Dial Books for Young Readers hardcover (pictorial boards) & dust jacket (in mylar cover), first edition, 2nd printing. Problem lies with 1) Pale scratch on DJ front panel, 2) both bottom corners of the book are bumped; and 3) there is a pale impression front cover that can only been seen when the light is just right. Again, the interior is clean and tight - unread. CONTENT: Welsh legend has it that as a boy, 12th-century Prince Llywelyn was blessed with a faithful dog named Gelert, and this strange and sentimental retelling marks novelist Cullen's picture book debut. Llywelyn and his canine companion are inseparable until he marries a cold princess and begins to ignore his true-hearted dog. One day, the couple's newborn son is missing and Llywelyn, discovering Gelert near the crib with a bloody mouth, raises his sword to the animal, only to find the infant safe and a dead wolf outside. Gelert then disappears, and Llywelyn is doomed to a life of regret. Later the prince is redeemed when the heroic beast reappears to him in two mysterious ways. Though somewhat stilted language dots the prose ("With an anguished roar, Llywelyn attacked Gelert"), the period setting and compelling plot will carry readers along. In a remarkable debut, Long crafts oil paintings that resemble medieval tapestries: steeped in a wide array of greens, sprinkled with blood reds and burgundies and teeming with flower and fauna. Her close-up renderings of expressive faces against deep landscapes of rolling hills and turbulent skies give the tale an epic quality. A handsome presentation of a fairy tale with an unusual moral: "The mightiest heart can come in the humblest vessel." Ages 8-up.