3.5 stars 
 "'You slept for a year,' he said. 'And then you woke again, none the worse for it. If any of you big people can stay awake there, it's you.'" 
 The Sleeper and the Spindle is a beautiful picture book that retells the story of Sleeping Beauty, with Snow White as the heroine (or 'the queen', as she is called in the story). Since the queen is now immune to the sleeping curse (I guess it's only a one-time thing, like chickenpox) and her three dwarves are somehow immune as well, they are the only one who can save Sleeping Beauty and her kingdom from eternal slumber. 
 I really wanted to love this book. The illustrations are gorgeous, the story was original, and the twist was unexpected and quite clever. But I felt like the story was too short and was missing a lot of background info - I wanted to know more about Sleeping Beauty and even more about the queen. Why was the queen reluctant to get married? What happened? How different was her story compared to the Disney version? 
 And that ending! Gah! It was so unsatisfying!