DOG TALES

Presents well-known fairy tales told from a dog's perspective and commented upon by wisecracking cats, including "Cindersmelly," "Jack Russell and the Beanstalk," and "The Doberman's New Clothes"

Unreal, occasionally surreal, these deeply fractured fairy tales feature doggy characters pawing through such stories as ``Jack Russell and the Beanstalk'' and ``Rapawnzul.'' Terrible puns tickle the text, and two supercilious cats, drawn only in black-and- white, make rude comments from the margins. Vividly colored and wildly exaggerated canines and humans populate the improbable illustrations, where the princess climbs to the top of her 20 mattresses on a ladder that is adorned with cowboy-boot feet (the story involves a Pekinese rather than a pea) and where Cindersmelly is rescued from stinkiness by a vacuum-cleaner salesman. The ``Doberman's New Clothes'' explains why dogs don't wear any, and the lead in ``Little Red Riding Hound'' outsmarts not a wolf, but a cat. There is only one punchline here, and children can probably handle the irony and camp, but will they want to? (Picture book. 5-10) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Grade 1-3-Completely dominated by hounds, terriers, beagles, spaniels, and other assorted canines, these six fractured fairy tales are truly for dog lovers. However, cat connoisseurs need not despair, as two curmudgeonly cats appear throughout the stories. These finicky felines slink along the edges of the pages, offering such comments at the end of "Cindersmelly" as, "What kind of a Prince chooses a big stinky dog over two elegant cats?" In "Jack Russell and the Beanstalk," they remark, "Oh, come on now. Dogs can't climb trees. That's dogsense./Cat-a-gorically impossible!" The cats take on more of a role in the last (and funniest) story, "The Doberman's New Clothes," when they play the parts of the tricky tailors: "...every dog in the kingdom, even the mongrels and strays, ordered clothes from The Canine's Couturiers....Which explains how the conniving cats got so smug and why all dogs today run around without any clothes on!" Short and silly, Dog Tales is best suited for readers who are old enough to recognize the humor and wordplay within the text, and who are familiar with the original stories. The accompanying artwork, which ranges from full-page illustrations to spot art, is bold and colorful, further bending readers' perceptions of these classic tales.
Lisa Gangemi Krapp, Rockville Centre Public Library, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.