Starred Review The author of Swamp Angel (1994) offers another winning, comical tall tale. On a crisp late-winter day, Toby is riding in the back of her parents' wagon and admiring her new clothes when a bump in the road sends her flying. She sails over treetops, into the clouds, and finally descends into a pile of snow ght at the paws of a wolf, who licks his chops. Quick-thinking Toby escapes by offering the wolf her beautiful coat, which she promises will make him the grandest animal in the forest. Through the woods, Toby encounters more animals, and each time, she slips away with a similar bargain until she is left only with her red long johns. Then the animals come together and fight: Who is the grandest? Their high-speed scuffle takes on magical proportions, just as Toby's parents find their daughter. After tapping a maple tree for syrup, the reunited family enjoys a pancake meal, right in the woods. Teague's dynamic paintings, reminiscent of 1930s popular American art in their rounded shapes and smooth textures, expertly showcase the comedy in Isaacs' animated words. Entertaining scenes of the animals, strutting off in their sartorial splendor, are matched with dialogue that's just as funny. Together, the bold compositions and words make a surefire read-aloud that will partner well with fables, such as Jerry Pinkney's Aesop's Fables (2000), and with other tall tales, such as Kenneth Oppel's Peg and the Whale (2000) and Lynne Bertrand's Granite Baby (2005).

PreS-Gr 4-Inspired by the pluck and tradition of Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo and infused with the flavor of an American tall tale, this story tells of Toby, who bounces from the back of her parents' buckboard and into the depths of the New England woods, where she must surrender her brand-new sartorial treasures to various denizens in order to secure her safety. A wolf wears her beautiful blue coat, a cougar takes her sunny-yellow sweater, a skunk gets her buck-hide boots, and a porcupine her bonnie brown dress. When a great big bear dons her bright orange mittens (on his ears), the animals begin to argue over which of them is the grandest. A chasing melee ensues, and they melt into a golden brown moat at the foot of the tree they race around. Toby retrieves her clothes, her parents' search for their lost girl is happily ended, and the tree drinks up that critter juice and transforms it into-sweet maple syrup! Time for a pancake feast! And just as Bannerman's fictional family did, one parent ate 27 pancakes, one ate 55, and the child ate 169, "because she was so hungry." Isaacs's clever, respectful take on an iconic tale is testament to its appeal. Teague's pictures are brilliant, cinematic full-bleed oil-paint dramas that capture the essence of a nascent New England spring. His characters' faces, human and animal, are overtly expressive and their stances just ooze attitude. This irresistibly delicious package will surely become a mainstay on the storytime menu.-Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Even as tall tales go, this is a whopper. Isaacs moves Little Black Sambo to the American woods, replacing Sambo with a spunky girl and the tigers with an assortment of animals. The adaptation is wordy and the plot (and pictures) overelaborated; Toby's song about her clothes, sung en route to town, is no substitute for the delectable rhythms of Bannerman's original story.

Quick-thinking frontier gal outsmarts a passel of mean critters in a tale with echoes of a boy, tigers and pancakes. While riding in the back of Mama and Papa's wagon on the way to Whisker Creek, young Toby goes flying past a surprised eagle, when the vehicle hits a big bump. She lands on a soft pile of snow, and nearly into the arms of a ravenous wolf. Toby bargains for her life with her beautiful blue coat. After the wolf, Toby faces a cougar, a skunk, a porcupine and a bear. By this time, Toby is down to her red long johns, and watches from an evergreen as the five would-be predators turn on each other, racing so fast around the trunk of a maple that they turn into a golden brown puddle. The maple absorbs the puddle, and Mama rewards Toby with a big pancake breakfast. She eats 169, and takes the reins of the horses. Teague's vibrant oil paintings add humor and style to Isaacs's All-American tall tale. Totally delightful and a great new spin on an old story. (Picture book. 4-9)

Teague's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Dear Mrs. LaRue) vibrant, cheekily heroic paintings and Isaacs's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Swamp Angel) fluid, folksy storytelling offer a twist to <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Story of Little<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC""> Black Sambo. Here the setting is a New England back when families rode horse-drawn wagons to town, and the star is a girl named Toby, all dressed up in new clothes worthy of a song ("I've got a sky-blue coat with purple lining/ A sun-yellow sweater with green leaves twining..."). But fate intervenes in an appropriately tall-tale manner. Teague depicts her being bucked off the wagon and sailing off the upper-right-hand corner of one spread, and airborne in the next ("past soaring eagles and feathery clouds"). Toby lands in the middle of the forest, threatened by five fearsome animals in turn ("Young, but ripe enough to eat!" chortles a bear. "Crunchy fingers! Crunchy feet!"). Plucky Toby, like the original hero, strikes a series of deals: in exchange for not inflicting harm, each animal gets one piece of her new clothing. A wolf struts away with the coat, a bear buys the argument that her two mittens would look fabulous on its ears. Instead of butter, the envious animals chase each other round a maple tree until they melt into maple syrup—to douse the title meal ("the grandest feast, West or East!"). Whether or not children have encountered the original tale, they'll quickly become immersed in these evocative landscapes, and deem Toby a brave heroine. Ages 3-5. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)