More Ursula Koering illustrations from the Jack and Jill Baba Yaga stories, this time from "Baba Yaga and the Alexandrite Ring;" this is not a Katherine O. Kurtz story.
In this tale Baba Yaga has a magical Alexandrite ring (an Alexandrite is a real gemstone, a dark green chrysoberyl that looks red when placed under artificial light) that can freeze things when green or warm things when red. But it has lost its powers and can only be restored when polished by a bit of web from the Spider Queen. Of course it is up to the witch's faithful cat to obtain some.
This is the story that I read and remembered from the early 1970's, and once more I am impressed by the persistence of imagery from that time in the make-up of my imagination. I have drawn that cat's muffler in many of my pictures, and it has turned up in my book, worn by one of my main characters.
When I was a kid, I read some Jack & Jills that my mother had from when she was a kid, so they would have been like 1950-era. I wonder whatever happened to them.
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