Once upon a Time

Three folktales--"The Fox, the Hare, and the Cock," "The Girl and the Geese," and "Battibeth"--complemented by remarkable, surrealistic art, are retold by an expert in fairytales and folklore in a new edition designed to be read aloud.

PreSchool-Grade 3-Garner retells three folktales with expressive language perfectly suited for telling or reading aloud. "The Fox, the Hare, and the Cock" and "The Girl and the Geese" are cumulative stories with a traditional European ambiance. Youngsters should enjoy repeating Fox's "'When I clump, ta-ra! When I thump, ta-ra! When I jump, ta-ra-ra! How the fur flies!'" as he tries to scare the other animals away. "Battibeth," which tells of a girl's fantastic search for her mother's carving knife, is offbeat and will appeal to children's sense of the absurd. The selections are short enough to be used with preschoolers and told by beginning storytellers, but they have not been simplified to the point of blandness. It is unfortunate that there are no source notes. The realistic illustrations are crisp, yet they are softly shaded. Messenger uses lush color throughout and pays scrupulous attention to details, down to the nasty face on a jug of sour milk and the gradations of colors of the elegant cockerel. Each page's handsome design and layout draw readers into the book, and the variations in type style and size create visual interest.
Cheri Estes, Dorchester Road Regional Library, Charleston, SC
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Garner ( The Owl Service ; Elidor ) retells three unusual folktales with verve--his words take on a magic of their own. In the first tale, a fox outwits a hare and steals her home, singing out a terrifying rhyme to keep other animals at bay. Only a cock with a sickle and a song of her own sets the intruder running. The second tale tells of a girl's search for her brother through a land of speaking ovens, trees, rivers and gastronomic challenges. The final story gleefully romps through the impossible (a needle becomes a steeple, a pumpkin houses an entire town). Imbued with spirit, these uncommon tales jaunt along, ideal for reading aloud. Graceful muted illustrations and playful layouts stress the cumulative elements in the first two stories while celebrating the extraordinary in the third. With their smooth sheen and intricate detail these images extend Garner's vision of the fantastical. A book full of surprises. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One of Britain's finest novelists for young people (The Owl Service, 1967), who's long been interested in folklore (A Bag of Moonshine, 1986), creates three nursery tales distinguished by a folkloric lilt and his own fresh imagery. In the cumulative ``The Fox, the Hare, and the Cock,'' Fox moves into Hare's hut of bark when his own ice hut melts, and is finally driven out by clever Cock after larger, stronger animals have failed. ``The Girl and the Geese'' concerns a child who saves her little brother from geese who've carried him off, but only after she tastes a ``sharp apple,'' ``sour milk,'' and ``sad pies'' offered by prospective helpers (a tree, a brook). And the dreamlike adventure of ``Battibeth'' begins with an errand to her grandmother to trade an egg for a knife; along the way, she loses the egg but finds a needle, which is transformed into a steeple that she climbs for an empowering view (and there's still more in this imaginative, powerfully symbolic sequence). Compact and intriguingly mysterious; handsomely illustrated with precisely detailed images, deployed effectively against dramatic white. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 5-9. Garner gives three traditional tales the red-carpet treatment in this beautifully designed volume. In "The Fox, the Hare, and the Cock," the Hare is pushed out of her warm house by bullying Fox, who's defeated by an even bigger bully; "The Girl and the Geese," similar to the American tale "With a Wig, with a Wag," is a cumulative story in which the heroine rescues her brother from wild geese with the aid of items such as a tree, a stove, and a brook; and "Battibeth" is a progressive tall tale with an attention-getting conclusion. Garner's elegant text doesn't waste a word. The stories have a traditional ring, although no sources are given, and all will be easy to tell or to read aloud. Messenger's watercolors evoke fairy-tale towers and landscapes with almost surreal details, and each page, framed in deep purple, is embellished with an ornamented page number. The use of varying typefaces adds emphasis to the text, and decorative endpapers contribute to the overall effectiveness (and whimsy) of the design. Janice Del Negro