Five Sisters

PreS-Gr 2–Familiar fairy-tale elements course through the story of an elderly couple who wish for a child, paired with illustrations painted in a traditional Romanian style. The old woman and old man care for the forest but yearn for a child. When an oak tree hears the old man’s sorrow it gifts him a branch from which the man carves five wooden dolls. The old couple cherish the dolls through the seasons until winter comes and a wolf chews up the dolls. The old man mournfully returns the dolls to the heart of the oak tree, where they are transformed into a “daughter, real and true.” The illustrations create a distinctive look for each doll and for flora and fauna of the forest, with the menacing wolf foreshadowed in the early spreads of the book. When winter comes the wolf dominates the spread, menacing the cottage in a larger-than-life portrayal until driven away by the old man brandishing what is illustrated as a branch but described in the text as a trowel. Dramatically overwritten prose carries the theme of seasons throughout the story, comparing the old man’s tears to “spring rain” and their joy in the dolls to “eternal spring.”