Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales
Grade 3-6&ndash;Eight 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.&ndash;Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public LibraryCopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.