"The Face in the Cloth" is written in graceful language and tells a simple tale, and it may be enjoyed for those reasons alone. But if one is to understand what the tale is about, one must recognize that it is almost entirely a story of symbols, with the action existing primarily to move the symbols from one place to another.

Yolen writes of the Princess: There was never a time that the bloom of health sat on her cheeks. She remained the color of skimmed milk, the color of ocean foam, the color of second-day snow. She was always cold, sitting huddled for warmth inside her picture cloak even on the hottest days, and nothing could part her from it.

The Princess was not brought to this state by cruelty or hatred, but by love.

Instead of a cruel domineering mother, she had...