British children's author Nina Bawden and Swiss illustrator Pascale Allamand join forces in this picture-book retelling of the legend of William Tell, the brave archer whose actions helped lead to the foundation of the nation of Switzerland. All the major incidents of the story - the oppressive rule of the Austrians, the cruelty of Gessler, William Tell's refusal to kneel to Gessler's hat, his shooting of an apple off of his young son's head, and his escape from the boat taking him to imprisonment in Gessler's dungeon - are covered in the narrative here. The story, printed in fairly large type, is given on the left-hand side of each two-page spread, while a full-page painting is given on the right...

I've been on a bit of a William Tell spree recently, after reading and greatly enjoying Margaret Early's picture-book retelling, but this Bawden/Allamand version is the first I have read that is produced (or partly produced) by a Swiss creator. I was very interested to pick it up, for that reason. That said, although Allamand's illustrations were colorful and cute, in a somewhat cartoonish way, they did not speak to me, and I found that I much preferred Early's rather flat, medieval style artwork, or even the rather dark but expressive paintings of Leonard Everett Fisher, in his telling. On the other hand, I did like that Bawden included some of the historical details of the William Tell story, including the fact that in his time there were three smaller nations - Schwytz, Uri and Unterwald - that eventually united and rebelled against the Austrians. Although not my favorite - an honor that belongs to the Margaret Early telling, thus far - this was still an enjoyable version, and is one I would recommend, both to young folklore lovers in general, and to picture-book readers interested in William Tell in particular. ( )