Sometimes they say, "if you want to beat a bully, kill him with kindness."  It doesn't always work, but in this tale, that is exactly what happens.  I thought it was a cute story and I loved the pictures.  For some reason, I've always liked the sketch look.  I guess that's why I made the protagonist in my new novel a sketch artist.  I found myself enjoying the pictures more than the words.  Both go well together, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

What I would like to see, though, is a ogre that's not so mean.  I know the stereotype and most stories portray the ogre as the mean type, but for once I would like to see one outside the bully mold.  Wouldn't that be an interesting story.

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First of all, I love Olivia.  I haven't found anyone who doesn't love this little piggy and this particular story was no exception.  What I love about Olivia is the true telling of a kid with the face of a pig.  In this telling, she's a kid with a favorite toy, a toy that ends up the victim of a dog.  Yup, been there.  

My favorite part is the beginning, when she sees her soccer uniform and it's green.  We all know Olivia is a red kind of gal.  This page says "Olivia's uniform comes in a really unattractive green" and on the page is a painting of a ballerina, her leg up in the air and her arm on her forehead in a "oh, god" fashion.  Yup, that's how Olivia feels.

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I'm not so sure about this version of Snow White. It was definitely a dark version of the tale, which I get it for what it was, but I like my fairy tales well . . .  fairy tales.

As with Mirror Mirror, Huntsman starts with a once upon a time voice over.  I do like the voice overs and I am a fan of once upon a time.  Makes me feel hopeful, but the hopefulness ends there.

Here are some dark, strange things in Huntsman.

    1) The Queens Power: The queen gets her power and beauty by sucking the youth from young girls.  She's immortal, living long enough to break up more than just Snow's kingdom.  What I did like was that her desire to have Snow White killed was more than just vanity.  Snow is linked to the spell that gave her her power and killing Snow would ultimately make the queen powerful forever.
    2) The Mirror: The mirror is shaped as a concave disc and when the evil Queen says "Mirror Mirror", this golden creature emerges. 
    3) The Kiss: In this version, it's not the prince or in this case the duke's son that awakens our Snow White with a kiss, it's the Huntsman kiss that does the trick.  Now sure how I feel about that.

One thing I don't understand is fairy land, a place the dwarfs took Snow to protect her.  Was there a point to it?