(Younger) Illustrated by María Cristina Brusca. Pedro Urdemales is a clever trickster who appears in tales throughout Latin America. Brusca and Wilson retell twelve of those stories in this humorous, lively collection about a character who would feel right at home with Brer Rabbit and Coyote. In each of the stories Pedro outwits others who are richer, greedier, or more foolish than he is. In one tale Pedro sells a bush on which he has hung several gold pieces for five thousand pesos, claiming it is a money tree. In another, he paints black and brown spots on several horses and brazenly sells them to the priest who owns them. Young readers will join right in as Pedro laughs at the wealthy, educated class he so easily dupes. The stories, most of which are just two or three pages long, are illustrated with Brusca's sharp black-and-white line drawings that support the biting humor of the stories. The book - with its mischievous hero, its attractive, open layout, and its brief stories - is accessible to young readers. Brusca and Wilson include a thorough introduction and source notes to authenticate this welcome and entertaining collection. m.v.k. LisaÿCampbell Ernst, Reteller-Illustrator Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale (Picture Book) Little Red Riding Hood wears a hooded sweatshirt and rides her bicycle through farm fields to deliver muffins and lemonade to her grandmother in this cheerful contemporary rendering of the old tale. In Ernst's version the wolf makes a mistaken assumption: the grandmother does not turn out to be the "frail, loony, muffin-baking granny" he is expecting. In fact, she is a robust farmer who turns the tables on the wolf: "The wolf's mouth dropped open and he began to shake. 'M-m-my,' he finally whispered. 'What big eyes you have, Grandma.'" As in her earlier books, Ernst demonstrates her mastery over the picture-book form, with inventive plot and enjoyable characters succinctly drawn in the narrative and beautifully extended in the illustrations. Her familiar cartoon-style drawings, colored here in soft shades of red, blue, brown, and green, fill the pages. This playful send-up will please individual readers and story-hour audiences right down to the business partnership of Granny and the wolf and the concluding muffin recipe. m.a.b. (Picture Book) Retold and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz. Although no particular source is cited, the story of the simpleton whose kindness eventually wins him a princess bride has been commonly ascribed to the Brothers Grimm. The plot is immediately set in motion as, one by one, a peasant's three sons set forth to chop wood. Only the third, the simpleton, responds with kindness to a mysterious old man who begs for food; he is rewarded with the gift of a golden goose. The gleaming bird attracts the attention of a motley crew, including the daughters of the innkeeper in whose hostel the simpleton spends the night. Hoping only for a single feather, each finds herself stuck, the first to the goose, the others to one another - a condition that applies to everyone the simpleton encounters as he wends his way to the city, where the king has offered his daughter in marriage to the person who can make her laugh. This is a lively rendition of an appealing tale, complemented with illustrations in an angular, puppetlike style that recalls the story's folk origins. The skillful incorporation of an insistent refrain, modified for each character, begs for audience participation, as in this description of the first victim: "Hokety, pokety, stickety, stuck, poor Annabelle was down on her luck. / Wiggle and pull, she couldn't shake loose, and she had to stay with the simpleton's goose." The participants may be unlucky, but readers of this concisely told, artfully synchronized picture book will be winners. m.m.b. Virginia Hamilton, Reteller Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales (Intermediate) Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. Traditional and true African-American stories "of the female kind" have been brought together, retold, and briefly discussed by Virginia Hamilton in her third collection illustrated by the Dillons. The author groups the stories into sections such as "Her Animal Tales," "Her Fairy Tales," and "Her Supernatural," with perhaps the most interesting being the final section, "Her True Tales," the oral histories of three African-American women. These place the previous stories in their social, historical, and emotional context. The style of each telling has been subtly adapted to reflect the tale's tone and origin, and the author's comments following each tale are informal and informative. This oversized volume is distinctly different in appearance from Hamilton and the Dillons' previous collaborations, The People Could Fly and Many Thousand Gone (both Knopf). Text is placed on a framed, buff-colored insert on each white page, as are the slick full-color illustrations. The artwork is not evenly executed. Some pieces, such as the portraits of Catskinella and Annie Christmas, are reminiscent of the work of Trina Schart Hyman. The book will be well used by storytellers and others interested in traditional literature and "her stories." m.b.s. Warwick Hutton, Reteller-Illustrator Odysseus and the Cyclops (Picture Book) In his series of retellings of stories from Greek mythology, Hutton has provided approachable introductions for younger readers to sources of images and allusions that are part of the Western tradition in art and literature. This story of the confrontation between the Greek heroes returning from the Trojan War and Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant in whose cave they have taken temporary refuge, is perhaps one of the more dramatic episodes from the Odyssey and one of timeless interest. Hutton's spare text and storytelling style suggest preliterary origins, but his illustrations give a sense of times past and the all-pervading influence of sea and sky. Polyphemus' one eye is smaller, less caricatured, than is sometimes seen, but thus more terrifying. Indeed, emphasis is more on ingenuity than on gore, which makes this interpretation more Greek in spirit - an appeal to the mind rather than merely to the emotions. m.m.b EricÿA. Kimmel, Reteller The Adventures of Hershel of Ostropol (Intermediate) Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Kimmel retells ten stories about Hershel of Ostropol, a Jewish folk hero who lived during the first part of the nineteenth century. A man quick with a humorous saying or jest, Hershel lived by his wits, traveling from town to town in Eastern Europe. Readers may recognize Hershel from two of Kimmel's earlier books, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Holiday) and What His Father Did (Houghton). The latter - which is also the first story in this collection - tells how an empty-pocketed Hershel tricks a stingy innkeeper into feeding him "until his buttons burst." Another time, Hershel is returning home from a distant town where he has earned some money when he encounters a terrifying bandit who takes all his earnings. Hershel begs the bandit to shoot several bulletholes through his coat and cap so his terror of a wife will believe he was truly robbed. The bandit complies, and when he runs out of bullets, Hershel punches him in the jaw and takes back his money. Money is a perennial problem for Hershel, and nothing pleases him more than acquiring it by outwitting rich, miserly folk. Stopping by the village tavern one afternoon, Hershel finds Count Potocki, who wagers one thousand rubles that Hershel can't tell a story so incredible that the count won't believe it. After many tall tales - including one about bees as big as wolves - all of which the count insists he believes, Hershel tells about meeting the count's mother in Hell, where she was sent for giving birth to "that rascal," the count. At that Count Potocki roars that Hershel is a liar, and Hershel happily pockets the money and leaves. Each story is illustrated by humorous black-and-white drawings. h.b.z. Mark Podwal, Reteller-Illustrator Golem: A Giant Made of Mud (Picture Book) Mark Podwal relates a version of the Jewish legend of the golem that was inspired by a meeting between the great sixteenth-century scholar/mystic Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague and Emperor Rudolf II, who had a great interest in alchemy and the occult. On his visit to the emperor's palace, the rabbi, seeing a silver spoon engraved with Hebrew letters, relates a story about a rabbi who had once used a similar spoon to bring to life a figure of mud and clay, a golem. The belief was that such a golem could serve to protect the Jewish people in times of great trouble. Interested in the story, the emperor makes the rabbi a gift of the strange silver spoon. But as time goes by, the emperor becomes erratic in his behavior, and evil advisers take over the land. Seeing the suffering inflicted on his people, the rabbi fasts and prays and determines to bring to life a golem to help protect the ghetto. For a time, the golem is indeed effective, but when one night an armed mob breaks into the ghetto, the golem goes berserk. No longer under the rabbi's control, he destroys everything in his path until the rabbi's prayers bring about the golem's end. The author closes by suggesting that somewhere a golem may be "waiting to be brought back to life . . . or perhaps all that remains are the stories." The sophisticated and striking illustrations, which use a combination of gouache, colored pencils, and ink, are most effective in suggesting the medieval and mystical Prague of this legend. h.b.z. NancyÿVan Laan, Reteller In a Circle Long Ago: A Treasury of Native Lore from North America g (Intermediate) Illustrated by Lisa Desimini. Van Laan's collection of twenty-five legends and poems is a sampler of the folklore of the native peoples of North America. She organizes the material by region, beginning with an Inuit poem from the Arctic and ending with "The Gift of Peace" from the Oto people of the Great Plains. The book is a journey across the continent and a glimpse of the values and lifestyles of many different nations. Van Laan is a skilled reteller - she re-creates the rhythms of oral storytelling in her writing and keeps each legend simple and direct. Each illustration suits the tone of the story it accompanies. For some illustrations, Desimini uses heavy, full-page paintings done in oils or acrylics, while other stories are illustrated with smaller, delicate framed pieces. Desimini's detailed borders reflect styles of art from different regions; for example, the section which includes tales from the Northwest coast begins with an illustration that recalls the totem poles of the Haida tribe. The collection is carefully documented with source notes. Van Laan also includes a map, an extensive introduction, and a brief description of each tribe. The collection is a true smorgasbord - readers will get a taste of the richness of Native-American folklore and will be tempted to search other books for a closer look at individual peoples. A hamdsome collection that treats both the folklore and the audience with respect. m.v.k. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 1-4‘This version of the classic story is similar to Leonard Everett Fisher's Cyclops (Holiday, 1991), but Hutton does not frame it within The Odyssey. His pen-and-watercolor illustrations are done in his usual light, slightly impressionistic style, and are less heavy and horrific than Fisher's. But Hutton's cyclops isn't very scary, and the pictures lack tension. The layout, which sometimes places small blocks of text opposite a full-page illustration, often leaves a sense of too much white space. Hutton's writing style is readable, and he spins a good yarn. Add this to your collection if you don't have Fisher's version or if mythology is in demand.‘Cheri Estes, Detroit Country Day School Middle School, Beverly Hills, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

As in his previous retellings, Hutton (The Trojan Horse; Persephone) whittles down a vivid incident in Greek mythology to a length and level of complexity well suited to kids. Here, Hutton visits the Odyssey for the famous encounter between Odysseus and the one-eyed Cyclops, Polyphemus. Odysseus and 12 of his men are trapped in the Cyclops's cave, and the Cyclops has begun to devour his visitors two by two. Wily Odysseus realizes that he can't simply kill the Cyclops lest he and his crew remain trapped forever in the cave, so he devises a daring plan, gouging the Cyclops's eye and having his men escape from the monster's clutches by clinging to the bellies of his sheep when he leads them outside. The unassuming narrative has an appealing, conversational tone: when the crew disembarks on the island and one of his men asks Odysseus why he is taking along a jar of wine, the leader responds, "I don't know, but something tells me to take it." With its mild palette of gentled blues and grays, the watercolor-and-pen art tames some of the gore in this episode, too. Ages 7-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Ages 5^-9. For a younger audience than Leonard Everett Fisher's terrifying Cyclops (1991), this version is not as ferocious or as sad. In these casual, understated line-and-watercolor illustrations, the one-eyed giant confronting Odysseus and his men looks like a kid playing with toy soldiers, or like an adult towering over a child. As in Hutton's Trojan Horse (1992), the telling is simple and informal, bringing the myth into ordinary life. The story opens with some sailors blown far off their course and wondering "where they would end up." Then we discover that their leader is Odysseus and that they're returning from the Trojan War. As they move across the island into the cave of the Cyclops, the peaceful, sun-drenched landscape gives way to the tight darkness, in which the giant grabs and eats two men at a time, until cunning Odysseus tricks the monster and sets them free. Kids will be held by the elemental adventure. --Hazel Rochman

In this excellent retelling, the encounter between Odysseus and the one-eyed Polyphemus maintains its timeless appeal. Few can resist the tale of the terrifying giant who eats human flesh, tricked out of many future meals by the man he calls ``Nobody.'' Hutton (Persephone, 1994, etc.) retains touches of antiquity while keeping the writing accessible; the star, as always, is the art. His watercolors effectively capture the light of the eastern Mediterranean; a mix of perspectives enhances the narrative. As an introduction to Greek myth, the book works at both the elementary and high school level, and is an ideal read-aloud for almost any audience. (Picture book/folklore. 7+)