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I first ran this review in 2008! It's been getting a lot of hits lately and, over the last few years I have become a huge fan of Julia Donaldson's brilliant picture books, so I thought I'd post this again for those of you who haven't heard of this book or her other works.   Julia Donaldson may be known to you as the writer of the wonderful rhyming picture books, The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - CINDERELLA A 3 DIMENSIONAL FAIRY TALE THEATER -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> I adore the illustrations of Jane Ray. She has had a long and prolific career and I have reviewed her books The

The author of A Tale Dark and Grimm and the story of how he came to write this book are almost as interesting as the book itself, so what follows is a two part review. Part One, About Adam Gidwitz sheds light on his background as well as the importance of fairy tales and the appropriateness of the violence that is a crucial part of these stories. Part Two is a review of his debut kid's book.

Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace Fleming and G Brian Karas came out in the summer of 2010 and got a lot of well deserved attention in the blogosphere. However, it was one of those (many) books that I intend to order in for story time when I go to work and then completely forget. Somehow, during that 12 minute drive everything I had been thinking about at home evaporates. Fortunately, Clever

Kenny and the Dragon is now in paperback! Tony DiTerlizzi's Kenny and the Dragon, his first solo chapter book, is an homage to Kenneth Grahame's The Reluctant Dragon as well as a literary name dropper. I'm not sure what copyright laws allow Gregory Maguire to mess with the characters of L Frank Baum's Oz books, or countless authors to toy with the characters Jane Austen brought into this

Leigh Hodgkinson is brilliant! An exploration of her website, Wonkybutton and her book blog, as well as her adorable, very cool blog about creative things she does with her young daughter, took up much of my evening. After reading her newest picture book, Goldilocks and Just the One Bear, I flipped to the author bio and learned that Hodgkinson, who is also a filmmaker and animator, worked on

The Frog Princess by ED Baker is a gentle twist on traditional fairy tales that should put a smile on the face of fans of Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted and her Princess Tales, now collected in one volume titled, The Fairy's Return and other Pricness Tales, which I highly recommend for all fairy tale lovers. Set in the kingdom of Greater Greensward, there are the familiar witches, spells,

Lucy Cousins is the creator of the wonderful world of Maisy the mouse and friends. Her bright, playful illustrations appeal to babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers. With Yummy, Cousins brings us a much needed collection of fairy tales for the pre-school and younger set. Big pictures and short stories make this a book that can be read from cover to cover for older listeners or one or two stories

Short story collections for kids are very rare these days, and, while I haven't read very many in my life, I suspect that Joan Aiken has to be one of the most prolific and excellent writers of short stories for children in the 20th century. A Necklace of Raindrops came about when, in 1968, Aiken was to write stories from a list of 200 words for younger readers in America - much the way Theodore

Like Diana Wynne Jones and Joan Aiken, Cornelia Funke is a master at creating a complete magical world populated with intriguing characters, human and otherwise. Funke's Inkworld Trilogy is a perfect example of this and Dragon Rider is no exception. The world of Firedrake, a silver dragon who feeds on moonlight, is populated with Brownies, Dwarves, enchanted ravens, talking, map-making,