Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book?
Grade 1-3-When Herb falls asleep with his head on top of a dusty book of fairy tales, he finds himself stuck inside the volume with no quick way out. Chased by a raging Goldilocks, who is upset that he landed in her story, the boy journeys through a parade of fairy tales and finally gets caught in the middle of "Cinderella." All of his past mishandling of the book comes back to haunt him-Cinderella's kitchen is sticky with cookie crumbs, the Queen does not appreciate the mustache Herb has drawn on her face, and Prince Charming has been missing since he was cut out of the book and used as a birthday-card decoration. Child's wildly expressive collages include boldly patterned backgrounds, cartoon characters, and photographs in unexpected places. The text (and font) grows and shrinks and winds jaggedly through the story, and turns upside down on several pages. This fast-paced creative tale has some really funny moments. However, children may find it a bit frenetic. While Child's "Clarice Bean" titles (Candlewick) are grounded by that strong, familiar central character, here the disparate elements of the story sometimes feel as if they are literally flying off the edges of the pages.Shelley B. Sutherland, Niles Public Library District, ILCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.