"Dopey Loses The Diamonds" Book

Front Cover

Dopey Loses the Diamonds is a 1994 children's picture book illustrated by artist Toby Bluth. The front cover and many of the pages include images of the diamonds enhanced with "glittering faceted foil."

Title Page

The story begins with the Seven Dwarfs at their mine. They are ready to head home with a surprise for Snow White--a sack full of sparkling diamonds. Dopey wants to carry the bag and starts out at the front of the line. But the load is heavy, and he slowly falls behind until he's trailing at the back. Darkness falls as the night comes on. A twig catches on the diamond bag and tears a little hole.

Page 6: Dopey runs to catch up with the rest of the Dwarfs, unaware of the tear. As the bag bounces, the hole gets larger and the diamonds begin to fall out...

Luckily, the forest animals are there along the path to see what is happening.

Page 11: The Dwarfs arrive home to Snow White.

Dopey shows her what he thinks is a full sack, but the bag is empty. Grumpy is angry at Dopey for losing the diamonds. Then Doc comes to his defense by examining the sack and finding the hole. The Dwarfs and Snow all decide to go out by lantern light and search for the diamonds. They follow the path all the way back to the mine but can't find a one of them. Dopey feels like he's let everyone down.

Page 16 -17: They returned home, and to their surprise, the cottage and trees are all decorated with the sparkling diamonds...

Just as everyone is wondering who could have found the diamonds and decorated their home, the forest animals come out into the clearing. Everyone is happy, especially Dopey.

Page 20: The End.

Endpaper

Back Cover

Publisher: Mouse Works, 1994

Pages: 20

ISBN: 157082150x

Retail Price: $8.98 USD

"Snow White's Escape" Book

Front Cover and Spine

Published by Mouse Works in 1994, Snow White's Escape is a beautiful 20-page children's hardcover that tells the story of Snow White's flight through the dark forest, with the aid of moveable pull-tab illustrations and multi-layered leaves. Created by artist Toby Bluth, this brilliantly designed "Slide-N-Show" book is aburst with imagery and a color palate reminiscent of what we see in the original film. Unfortunately the title is no longer in print. Nonetheless, here's a look at several of Bluth's striking and detailed scenes.

On pages 1-2, Snow White is confronted by the Queen's Huntsman. He is seen sliding out from behind a boulder with knife in hand. The clear plastic windows that separate the leaves allow us to see through to not just one, but numerous sections of the book, adding the feeling of a "multiplane" three-dimensional depth.

Turn the page and Snow begins her flight into the dark forest. Looking back, we still see the Huntsman, but looking forward through the menacing trees, a warm light awaits us.

The rest of the book is filled with Bluth's brilliant artwork and clever pull-tab setups.

Text and Illustrations copyright Toby Bluth/Disney. 

The story continues with Snow White meeting her forest animal friends, the journey to the cottage, the clean up, the Dwarfs march home from the mine, and their surprise at finding the lights on inside. It ends with the discovery of the princess upstairs.

Back Cover

Toby Bluth has said that his artwork is influenced by the likes of Gustaf Tenggren and others from the Golden Age. From the look and feel of this little book, there's no doubt about it. Now out-of-print, Snow White's Escape can still be found through numerous online resellers.

ISBN: 1570821534

Original retail price $9.98 (US), $12.98 (Canada)