Beauty and the Beast: Les Petits Fairytales
PreS—These adaptations of popular fairy tales fail in both execution and accessibility. In a series of spreads containing one word each, the titles unsuccessfully attempt to distill the stories down to their sanitized essences. However, with such simplified text, all real meaning is lost. Beauty, for example, reads: "Girl/Books/Father/Rose Garden/Beast/Palace/Horse/Journey/Treats/Kindness/Library/Friend/MagicMirror/Visit/Dream/Hug/Love/Prince/Marriage." The primarily Caucasian characters are delineated with geometric shapes, while the scenery is blocky and flat. The colors are bold and bright, and the covers are glittery. While they will likely find an audience with princess-crazy toddlers, readers will be lost once the books are opened. Pass on these poorly conceived adaptations and pick up Karen Katz's "Princess Baby" (Random) board books instead.—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT