Rating: ** 2 stars

Fiona Waters, illustrated by Lisa Berkshire,
Fairy Tales From Far and Wide.
Barefoot Books, 1999

Water’s retellings and Berkshire’s illustrations unite to provide a reasonably attractive addition to our stock of fairy tale anthologies - but only ‘reasonably’: in terms of its cover, typography and general layout, this is a book which can only be described as old-fashioned. Its principal merit lies in its choice of seven stories, only two of which (‘The Frog Prince’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’) are likely to be widely familiar. The remaining five comprise examples from Sweden, Japan, Ireland, North America and the West Indies, the most engaging of these being the last one, a playful ‘trickster’ tale. The artwork throughout is colourful, if not always particularly subtle.

Robert Dunbar