And, given the convoluted plot and the heavy text, even curious readers might not be able to get past their first impressions. I think this is going to be isolate to readers who actually like the opera and musical already. I feel it would have been improved quite a lot if they had allowed for perhaps 50 or so pages, thus breaking up the text and also allowing for a closer match of text to picture, instead of the pictures only fitting about half of the text on the page. While it's interesting to have a picture book based on an old and well-loved opera, it's hard to put all of that into a 32-page book without everything having to be crammed into very text-heavy pages. Sadly.I wasn't into this book so much, myself. Seeing so many dark-skinned and powerful, dynamic characters must be quite a pleasant change of pace for African-American audiences. Of course, the story of Aida is entirely fictional, but the artwork in this book draws heavily on Egyptian Old Kingdom style. Not coming from an African heritage, I think I miss some of the impact of this book. The students should be able to make connections to the story to validate their opinions as well.

The students will need to use examples from the story. Was it worse for Princess Aida and Captain Radames to betray their countries? Was it worse for them to betray their love for each other? The main objective of this essay would be to convince the audience that your opinion is more valid than the opposing view point. Since most of this story dealth with betrayal, the students could write an essay on which betrayal was worse. The teacher could have the students write a persuasive essay for this story. When portaying the gods, the illustrator used warm colors that seemed to brighten up the page. The illistrator successfuly detailed the differences between royalty and slaves. In addition, the themes of betrayal and loyalty also come into play.

This story follows the classic Shakespearian tale of 'star-crossed lovers' as Princess Aida falls in love with Captain Radames, an official in the army of her country's enemy. The despair of Princess Aida can almost be felt by the reader by simply gazing into her eyes as she is taken away by the Egyptian soldiers.

The illustrators extraordinary talent is expressed through his realistic portraits. The vivid illustrations in this story truly tell a story.

Aida by leontyne price