The Cas­tle on Hes­ter Street, a Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Award win­ner, was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in 1982 with illus­tra­tions by the author. Typ­i­cal of the era, it fea­tures a lim­it­ed palette of mut­ed col­ors, used effec­tive­ly with­in black and white line draw­ings. Now, a new­ly illus­trat­ed ver­sion by Boris Kulikov offers an expan­sive full col­or visu­al inter­pre­ta­tion of the orig­i­nal text. Young Julie is vis­it­ing her grand­par­ents, and is treat­ed to her grandfather’s tall tale ver­sion of his life his­to­ry, with many inter­rup­tions and cor­rec­tions from her grand­moth­er. He tells of a singing goat named Moishe who brought him to Amer­i­ca, and of the jew­el-encrust­ed but­tons he sold from his push­cart that were big enough to use as sleds. Grand­moth­er, of course, insists on a more accu­rate his­to­ry. In Heller’s illus­tra­tions, a clean white back­ground focus­es atten­tion on the char­ac­ters, while Kulikov’s more atmos­pher­ic scenes are filled with col­or­ful, sur­re­al detail. Both styles have their advan­tages. The orig­i­nal pic­tures, clear­er and more direct­ly illus­tra­tive of the text, work well for a librar­i­an or teacher shar­ing the book with a large group. The new pic­tures offer a more sat­is­fy­ing expe­ri­ence for an indi­vid­ual read­er to savor at leisure. They are whim­si­cal, even fan­tas­ti­cal, with unusu­al per­spec­tives and very effec­tive use of light. The grand­par­ents as pic­tured by Heller are sweet, round-faced indi­vid­u­als. Grand­fa­ther is clean-shaven and wears a yarmulke. Kulikov makes them lean­er and more ener­getic, adding a long Juda­ic-style beard to grandfather’s face, but sur­pris­ing­ly, remov­ing his yarmulke and depict­ing him bare­head­ed in sev­er­al scenes. All in all, this updat­ed ver­sion offers visu­al­ly strik­ing illus­tra­tions with a lot of pizazz and ener­gy. Don’t throw out your old ver­sion, but do add this attrac­tive new edi­tion to your shelf. For ages 5 – 9.