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 Compton,
Patricia A. 1991. The Terrible Eek. Illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka.
Simon & Shuster Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0671737376.
Appropriate for ages 3 to 6. “What do you fear the most, father?”
asks a little Japanese boy on a stormy night. The father’s answer
sparks off a hilarious series of events precipitated by the eavesdropping
ears of a thief and a wolf. This retelling of an old Japanese tale
is done in classic style with excellent pacing. Children and adults
alike will laugh out loud at how the creatures mistake each other
for the most terrible thing. A comedy of misadventure, one can easily
imagine this story being passed on orally. The illustrations are highly
amusing and expressive. Rich colors and bold strokes of the brush
on canvas make these illustrations sing with life and complement the
classic style of the story. On several 2 page spreads, the illustration
has been split down the center and brackets the text on both sides.
This effect produces a subtle suspense that helps carry the reader
along. But varying illustration size and placement keeps things interesting
as well.
 Martin,
Rafe. 1992. The Rough-Face Girl. Illustrated by David Shannon.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons. ISBN 0399218599.
Appropriate for ages 4 to 9. This Native American variant of the Cinderella
story is about a girl who is literally scarred from the cinders of
the fire. Her two proud and hard-hearted sisters force her to feed
the fire constantly and the sparks have scarred her arms and face
and singed and dirtied her hair. Every eligible maiden in the village
wants to marry Invisible Being because he has the biggest wigwam and
is mysteriously powerful. But his sister guards the entrance and refuses
any who are not deemed worthy. The illustrations are lovely and a
few really stand out. The illustration of the two sisters all dressed
up and proudly strutting through the village on their way to the wigwam
is the very picture of vain haughtiness. The sister of Invisible Being’s
frowning face as she confronts the two sisters is excellent as well.
The scene of Rough-Face Girl on her way to visit the sister of Invisible
Being is wonderfully textured and detailed. The illustrator has not
quite met the challenge of painting the invisible though, but this
does not seriously detract from the story, which has a happily ever
after ending.
 Schwartz,
Alvin. 1991. Scary Stories 3: more tales to chill your bones.
Illustrated by Stephen Gammell. HarperTrophy. ISBN 0060217952.
Appropriate for grades 2 through 6. This collection of folklore retold
by Alvin Schwartz will contain a few classic “urban legends”
as well as reworked variants of very old ghost tales. A classic in
the urban legend department is the spider bite that turns red and
sore and eventually breaks open with a swarm of baby spiders. “Hello,
Kate!” falls into the classic ghost tales category. A man is
walking to a dance in the next town when he recognizes a girl who
follows him. She has been dead for a year and seems to want to come
to the dance with him, even as he flees all the way to the dance hall,
where she disappears. These stories are all well documented in the
back as to origin and bibliographies. The illustrations are truly
spooky and grotesque, sometimes, considerably more so than the story
itself. But these illustrations definitely add a special something
to the book, and it would be much poorer without them. Children will
love reading these and retelling them to their friends under the covers
at a sleepover or around a campfire at night.
 Scieszka,
Jon. 1989. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. Illustrated
by Lane Smith. Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0670827592.
Appropriate for ages 4 to 8. Mr. Alexander T. Wolf (You can call me
Al) has been framed. In this tongue-in-cheek version of the classic
fairy tale, the wolf gets to tell his side of the story. Who knew
that he wasn’t trying to eat the pigs when he approached their
homes? He just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar for his dear old granny’s
birthday cake. And could he help it if he had a terrible cold and
sneezed with all the force of a tropical storm? Those pigs should
have built sturdier houses! Of course, after their houses fell in
on them, killing them quite dead, Al just couldn’t leave a perfectly
good meal just lying there, could he? And you should have heard the
way the third little pig spoke about Al’s dear granny. It was
extremely rude. Anybody would be a little steamed up after hearing
that. These illustrations are sophisticated and oddly stretched, much
like the updated version of the fairy tale they support. The pigs
all look quite menacing, and the wolf is a paragon of the mild-mannered.
The illustrations also seem to belong to a tabloid, which seems highly
appropriate.
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