(4) K-3 Illustrated by John Nickle. Coombs offers her own interpretation of the Grimm fairy tale of a half-boy, half-hedgehog: here, he raises pigs, plays the fiddle, and goes with little human love until a promise-made-good earns him a princess--and humanity. Nickle's acrylic paintings, though appropriately formal, mix several styles to often strange effect.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by John Nickle. Reimagining the legend of the Pied Piper, DeKeyser adds a backstory and significant new characters, empowers the children, and builds to a satisfyingly different outcome. Farm lad Rudi finds, then loses, a golden guilder belonging to the titular witch--an ominous event since she's believed to be vindictive. The author lays the ground for her cliffhanger of a denouement well.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2012

(2) K-3 Illustrated by John Nickle. Officer Binky, a laconic and rumpled frog detective, investigates the events of fairyland: "The Three Bears" is a breaking and entering; "Snow White" is an attempted murder; Hansel and Gretel present a self-defense plea. Levinthal has a good time with scene-of-the-crime details, forensics, and witness testimony. Nickle's dramatic, hard-edged paintings, with their hint of grotesque misanthropy, are just the ticket.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2012

(3) K-3 Illustrated by John Nickle. Kids will immediately absorb the wisdom of the pithy, emphatic rules laid down here: "NEVER sit next to a porcupine on the subway," "NEVER take a giraffe to the movies," "NEVER hold hands with a lobster." A cast of animals and insects illustrates the hazards of breaking the rules in appropriately absurd full-page paintings.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) K-3 In this list of silly superlatives, a snake on ice skates is the "wiggliest" and a skunk convention is the "smelliest." Each example is illustrated with a slick, slightly surreal painting that takes full advantage of the wonderfully absurd text. The book ends with a fill-in-the-blank page to be duplicated so kids can create their own examples.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.