A good children’s book, like The Cost of Gold by Daniel Mault and Jessie Miller, requires the development of many subtle and highly difficult proficiencies; the primary being a compelling story with engaging illustrations. Additionally, the story and the illustrations are dependent on each other. A consistency of voice and sight is what compels the child’s rapt attention. The illustrations in The Cost of Gold are truly lovely. An almost graphic sense of style lends a subtle sense of constructive form and origin, but a blanket of consistent softness hides any evidence of rigidity, while a marvelous and powerful radiant inner light suffuses each pastel-colored scene, evoking always the defining warmth of life. These skillful illustrations compel and provoke the most attention from this book.

The moralistic story told in The Cost of Gold is a good one, relating and proclaiming the intangible virtues of friendship and family over the concrete perils of materialistic greed. A young boy and his sister are presumably offered “the keys to the kingdom” by a magic golden frog who speaks only to the girl. The one requirement to attain such riches is to leave mom and dad behind. The story told in combination with such exquisite illustrations would be better served by sharing their utter self-containment – each picture worth more than the verbal paragraph meant to describe what is going on. The characters are engaging and the story has a good foundation. Daniel Mault and Jessie Miller have partnered to create a children’s book highly appealing to the young audience they seek.

The Cost of Gold ( A True Fairytale) by Daniel Mault is a breathtaking fairytale that follows a writer thinking of a story. An elderly woman sits down and begins to tell him the tale of what she believes happened in her childhood. Her story is about a sister and brother, named Maggie and Henry, who have always been poor, never having enough food or clothes. One day, Maggie meets a golden frog that promises her riches beyond her wildest dreams on two conditions: that she leaves her parents, and that she tells no one but her brother about it. She and her brother leave home, and arrive at a castle, and are treated like royalty. But they still miss their parents. Will they ever see them again?

I really enjoyed reading The Cost of Gold ( A True Fairytale) by Daniel Mault. The book is very well written and descriptive. The story teaches that gold isn't always what makes you rich; sometimes it's the people around you. The story is meaningful and beautiful. The story is very creative and imaginative, exciting and interesting. The pictures, by Jessie Miller, are very well drawn and beautiful and help to clearly depict each scene. I like how the story has two different stories: the elderly woman and the author, and Maggie and Henry. The characters are very likeable, and readers will find that they are able to relate to them. I would definitely recommend this book to all young readers.