The Gingerbread Man
That baked-goods scamp stars in another retelling, and although his creators (the little old man and woman), his taunting refrain ("Run, run, as fast as you can,/ You can't catch me,/ I'm the gingerbread man") and his fate (being gobbled by a clever fox) remain the same, Jones (What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?) adds two nifty twists. One is narrative: the Gingerbread Man's pursuers are characters from Mother Goose, including Little Boy Blue, the Grand Old Duke of York and Little Miss Muffet. The other is novelty: a die-cut window on each spread gives a hint about who the next person on the cookie's trail will be (thus, on a spread where the Gingerbread Man teases Humpty-Dumpty, an opening on the opposite page reveals a tiny figure in a haystack who turns out to be Little Boy Blue). Jones's whisper-thin, meticulous ink detailings and soft, translucent colors bring to mind vintage tinted engravings, but some readers may be frustrated by the surplus of minutiae and the drawings' apparent lack of focus. Unfortunately, Jones never really captures the Gingerbread Man's brassy flatness or his effervescent insolence. For a more successful effort, see James Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock's 1998 version. Ages 4-8.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.