Shaw warns readers of the perils of laziness in this retelling of Goethe's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," while Barry sets the eerie, gothic mood with his Gorey-esque, watercolor-and-ink illustrations, sparingly scattering color over gray-washed scenes. The tale begins in a dusty stone castle, where lazy young Schnitzel is apprenticed to the renowned wizard Sir Willibald. In lieu of a magical education, however, the boy is expected to clean the castle without the help of spells. One night, Schnitzel is saved from the horrors of vacuuming (the appliance is a literal beast!) by the serendipitous arrival of a vacuum-cleaner salesman, eager to be of service. Unfazed by the stranger's pointy fangs and opera cloak, Schnitzel invites the salesman in, with catastrophic results. Only through Sir Willibald's intervention does Schnitzel live to clean another day and finally learn the value of hard work. Large-scale illustrations and rhythmic text make this cautionary tale an entertaining read-aloud, and the concluding author's note on the story's source prompts readers to create their own versions.

K-Gr 4 In this clever retelling of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," lazy Schnitzel, in an effort to avoid the household chores assigned to him by the wizard Willibald, accepts the offer of a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman for a free demonstration. However, the Thing not only gobbles up cobwebs and mud, it also consumes the contents of the house and eventually the house itself. Just as the salesman is about to nibble on Schnitzel himself, the wizard appears and with a single "poof" restores all to normalcy. Schnitzel has learned his lesson the hard way and performs his chores with alacrity from that point on. The story is told in verse and flows easily with no sour notes and would be a pleasure to read aloud. The illustrations, done in varying shades of gray with the occasional splash of red, swirl across the pages and pleasantly capture the energy of the tale. An author's note at the end gives the history of the work and offers suggestions for creating your own version of this old poem. VERDICT An interesting adaptation that should have substantial appeal and be a worthwhile addition for most collections. Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ