โ Scribed by Maguire, Gregory; Demarest, Chris L
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Grade 3-6Eight well-known fairy tales are recast, with the aid of animal characters and outrageous puns (with some tongue-in-cheek witticisms thrown in), into such stories as ''Little Red Robin Hood'' and ''Cinderelephant.'' In one of the most entertaining stories, ''Rumplesnakeskin,'' a gorgeous and tough-talking sheep named Norma Jean changes her name to Beauty and ends up being forced to spin straw into gold to finance the king's latest failing movie venture. Demarest's madcap illustrations add energy and fun to a somewhat uneven collection. While kids will laugh out loud at the irrepressible youngest sibling in ''The Three Little Penguins and the Big Bad Walrus,'' some of the selections, including ''Leaping Beauty,'' seem labored and uninspired. However, fans of Dav Pilkey and Jon Scieszka will appreciate the zany situations and the joyful fracturing of traditional tales.Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library
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Gr. 5-8. The author of numerous books for children as well as Mirror, Mirror (2003) and other adult fairy-tale adaptations tries his hand at parodying for kids in this collection of eight animal tales. In the title story a cursed tadpole becomes, successively, Weeping Beauty, Sleeping Beauty, and finally, Leaping Beauty. Most tales involve slightly skewed but satisfying endings: Goldifox, an unemployed carpenter, moves in with three chickens so that he can make them some comfortable furniture in ''Goldifox and the Three Chickens.'' But a few include references that may be beyond the target audience: the miller's daughter, a blond sheep fond of tight sweaters, changes her name from Norma Jean to Beauty in anticipation of a movie career. Demarest's comical line drawings add humor to the droll text and highlight the tales' absurdities. More upbeat than Vivian Vande Velde's Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird (1995) and more complex than Jon Scieszka's The Stinky Cheese Man (2002), this is a delightful collection, sure to be popular with sophisticated readers. Kay Weisman
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