Greene (Ling-Li and the Phoenix Fairy) turns to a Hungarian version of "The Golden Goose" for this jaunty story. It has all the elements of a favorite folktale--a hard-working lad seeking his fortune, an animal with magical properties, a king ready to pay three bags of gold to anyone who can make his ailing daughter laugh and a cast of supporting characters whose misdemeanors are redeemed as the stuff of mirth. All these pieces cohere in a radiantly silly climax featuring a line of people stuck to each other and compelled to dance like the golden lamb at the head of the procession that travels right past the princess's window. Greene's lighthearted text moves along at a swift pace, befitting the fleet feet of the characters. Litzinger (Louella Mae, She's Run Away!) employs a sunny palette--one that is considerably more robust than the slightly bleached-looking cover art suggests. Her watercolor and pencil compositions puckishly exaggerate rounded forms, so that hillsides, trees and horizons become almost circular, and people and animals balloon to cheerful roly-poly shapes. She matches Greene in her pleasant mix of fantasy and whimsy. Ages 4-7. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(Preschool, Primary) A Hungarian version of the folktale ""The Golden Goose,"" in which a flute-playing shepherd boy wins the hand of an ailing princess who must laugh to be cured. The sight of the boy leading a risible procession of serving maid, baker woman, and priest, all of whom are stuck to his little golden lamb, does the trick at once. Ellin Greene's storytelling style here is at once classic (""there once lived a poor man whose wife died, leaving their little son motherless"") and relaxed (""she had in mind to steal it, you know, but just then her hand stuck fast to the lamb's tail""). The cumulative element of the tale is handled with a light touch, with some variation in the repetition, but each new addition to the procession ends with the same phrase: ""and the little golden lamb carried them all, dancing down the road."" Rosanne Litzinger's illustrations, in a soft, springtime palette, are fittingly buoyant-almost pneumatic-with backgrounds of rounded hills like so many billowing green balloons, and comically gravity-proof dancers. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Ages 4^-7. In this sweet retelling of the traditional folktale "The Lamb with the Golden Fleece," a boy sets out to make his fortune with only a flute. He gets a job as a shepherd, taking as his payment a lamb with a golden fleece. The lamb attracts attention, and everyone who touches it--or touches someone touching it--becomes stuck. The boy, his lamb, and the procession of people stuck together make their way to a king's castle. The princess, who hasn't laughed in years, takes a look at the parade and laughs, making the lamb so happy that it's able to shake free of all its hangers-on. In time, the shepherd and the princess are married and live "with merry hearts all the days of their life." The watercolor-and-colored-pencil illustrations are as soft, gentle, and merry as the story itself. They make it easy to see why the princess laughs at the procession. --Marta Segal

K-Gr 3-A Hungarian version of the familiar "Golden Goose." A young man works as a shepherd for a year and asks only for a golden-fleeced lamb that dances when he plays his flute in payment. An innkeeper's daughter tries to steal it, only to be stuck fast. The lad plays his flute and the lamb dances, with the girl following suit. They are then joined by an old woman and a priest, and the whole procession passes in front of the king's daughter, who has been promised to the first person who could make her laugh. Needless to say, the boy gets the girl-and three bags of gold. The text has clearly been shaped by a storyteller-"Down the road they went,/The shepherd lad playing his flute,/The little golden lamb kicking up its heels,/On the lamb's tail the girl,/On the girl's back the baker's peel,/-And the little golden lamb carried them all,/dancing down the road." Litzinger's energetic watercolor and colored-pencil drawings capture the humor and absurdity of the tale. Though Uri Shulevitz's rollicking version, The Golden Goose (Farrar, 1995), is still in print, The Little Golden Lamb is a joyous tale, with a beautiful blend of text and illustration. A read-aloud treasure.-Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Readers and listeners may know this tale better as 'The Golden Goose,' retold here from its Hungarian roots by storyteller Greene (Billy Beg and His Bull, 1994, etc.). This somewhat cumulative tale is a shortened, sweetened version in comparison to the Grimm Brothers' telling, substituting a golden lamb in place of the traditional goose. Here, a young shepherd lad comes to own a golden lamb. As in the original tale, each person he meets along the way'an innkeeper's daughter, an old woman, and a priest'stick fast to the lamb and to each other, dancing to the shepherd's music as they go. In typical fairy-tale style, the boy happens upon news of a king whose princess will not laugh until, of course, she sees the ridiculous procession. All's well that ends well as shepherd marries and becomes a prince, earning three bags full of gold. The language is accessible for preschoolers, rather unadorned, fine for reading aloud, while the humor and any sense of hilarity is better conveyed through pictures. Cheery, round-faced characters prance against gumdrop-colored hills in delightful Nonny Hogrogian style. The real merriment lies in the illustrations' underlying sense of celebration. (Picture book/folklore. 4-7)