The White Hare is a fairy tale/fable about a young woman, Ostra, who helps tiny woodland creatures and is rewarded when they help her resist the advances of a handsome, but cruel suitor.

I am not sure why this was shelved as YA in our library; though it does have some themes like murder, they are passing and definitely not anything worse than most fairy tales. The writing is definitely more geared toward children rather than young adults, and it is quite short.

The story itself is so-so; Davies misses the mark on the fairy tale atmosphere. There were a few parts where the writing was awkward or had whiffs of modernity that ruined the "long, long ago" feel, but only a few. Overall, it was not bad, but definitely not the best fairy tale I have ever read, either.

So why three stars? Because the illustrations by Anastasia Izlesou are breathtakingly beautiful throughout. She has a real gift for watercolors, managing to pack a ton of motion into still frames and has a fantastic grasp of color. The purple and white forest as a hare runs past, or the bright green leaves on a bird's body, or even the white and red of a fat mouse sitting on the snow, do more to set an atmosphere than the story does. My favorite is on page 11. A simple rendering of a bird, but somehow Izlesou manages to capture the motion of flight on the page with a few brush-strokes.

A great book joins illustrations and text together to support each other; unfortunately, Izlesou's illustrations far surpass Davies' text. Worth a look for the illustrations alone, but not likely to be memorable beyond them. ( )

A hardworking and kindhearted young woman named Ostra finds herself the recipient of a most unexpected gift in this original folktale from prolific British author Nicola Davies. Set in ancient, prehistoric times, during the days when "humans and animals were fellow beings under the sky," the story follows Ostra as she gains the ability to understand the language of the animals and birds, through her generosity in sharing food with them. When the handsome but villainous hunter Wolvas asks her to marry him, these tiny creatures advise her against it, warning her that he is cruel and deceitful, and she continually finds an excuse not to comply with his request. But as her family is slowly eliminated through tragic circumstances, it seems her choices are growing slim. When the full truth is revealed, the animals help Ostra one last time, and she escapes her fate by transforming into a white hare...

The first of Davies' four-book Shadows and Light series, which explores "the deeper, darker side of our connection with the natural world,", The White Hare reads like a traditional folktale, the kind that explains how certain animals came to be. It is an original creation, however, and very well done. Davies' writing, which I have encountered before in some of her picture-books, is marvelous - immensely evocative. This is more of a short shorty with illustrations, than a picture-book, so there is significantly more text than the titles I have hitherto read from this author, and that is all to the good. All that said, although this isn't a picture-book, the accompanying artwork by Lithuanian-born Anastasia Izlesou, who makes her debut here, is absolutely beautiful! The depictions of the various animals are all wonderfully done, although I think my favorite panels were the portraits of Ostra and Wolvas, which both perfectly capture the essential nature of the subject being depicted. Recommended to anyone who appreciates folktale and folktale-style stories, as well as to those looking for shorter fiction with mature themes for older (I'd say ten years and up) children. ( )