A fairy tale that is charmingly told and delightfully illustrated, The Sweetest of Lemons is truly the sweetest of books. While traveling by car to visit his grandfather’s farm outside of Isfahan, Iran, a boy listens to a storyteller share the fantastic tale of a young man’s journey to take back “a lemon so perfectly sweet that it cured sadness itself” from the giant who has plucked it from his family’s orchard.
Daniel Nayeri writes like a sincere fairy tale expert and devotee. All the classic fairytale tropes—danger, adventure, mishaps and misfortune, chivalry and true love—dance across the stage of Nayeri’s narration. Clever, quick-witted, descriptive and charming, The Sweetest of Lemons is a delicious read-aloud, with moments of humor woven into an enthralling tale. And while it has a happy ending that’s standard in fairytales (at least by today’s Disneyfied versions), it is nonetheless beautiful and poignant.
Indeed, Nayeri’s writing is so true to the oral storytelling tradition that it needs no pictures to capture its audience. However, then you’d miss Rahele Jomepour Bell’s brilliant, captivating gouache and collage art. Vibrant blues and greens and golds collide in vast swatches of forest whose fascinating details pull readers deeply into the world. Both places—the real as well as the make-believe land of ogres and castles—are lush and inviting, and even the book’s scarier moments are more beguiling than terrifying. Nayeri’s prose style has a timeless feel that is especially noticeable in his characters, which makes this new fairy tale seem like one that’s been told for generations upon generations.
Notes from both the author and the illustrator, both as beautifully written and as intriguing as the story itself, wrap up this wonderfully woven picture book. Nayeri touches on well-known storytellers and fairy tale traditions around the world, while Jomepour Bell shines light on the Persian art and culture that inspired his colors, textures and designs. If you need more literary rabbit holes to follow, The Sweetest of Lemons contains innumerable curiosities.
Its length, complexity and a few scary moments make The Sweetest of Lemons best suited for the older range of picture-book readers. While it won’t actually bring ogres to their knees and save the family from ruin, The Sweetest of Lemons will sweeten your day—and that’s worth sharing.
