The Flint Heart

By Katherine & John Paterson
Illustrated by John Rocco
Candlewick Press, 2011
ISBN 9780763647124
Hardback $27.99

This is transformed from Eden Phillpott’s 1910 fantasy into a modern, but still classic, fairy tale. The flint heart is a powerful talisman that makes the wearer power-hungry, cruel and demanding. The father of Charles (12) and Unity (five) finds the heart and is changed from loving father into mean and demanding. In their search for help the children are admitted to the fairy realm as they attempt to save first their father, then other afflicted creatures. A beautifully produced book with glowing illustrations for age eight plus and there’s a movie on the way too.