The Gunnywolf (Trophy Picture Book Series)
PreSchool-Grade 1 Delaney's version of this old tale is reminiscent of a Disney cartoon, with a brightly-lit forest flooded with cute rabbits who resemble Thumper, birds and butterflies flying above, a vapid little blonde girl galumping through the action, and a gunnywolf that looks too much like Goofy to add tension. Gone is the drama of Wilhelmina Harper's story illustrated by William Wiesner (Dutton, 1967), and also absent is Harper's rhythmic, poetic text, retold here with mundane beginning reader vocabulary. The little girl's song in Harper's version ("Kum-kwa, khi-wa") has been replaced with the alphabet song, hardly a lullaby that would put anyone, much less a gunnywolf, to sleep. Alas, even the ending has been changed. A bland retelling of a much-loved story, this Gunnywolf is not going to have children on the edge of their chairs. Trev Jones, "School Library Journal "Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.