The gingerbread boy

Large, simple illustrations that emphasize the story's action make Galdone's work a particularly effective edition for the very young, while Cook's earth-toned, more dramatic presentation will appeal to the slightly older child. Both offer brisk retellings. For a change of pace, try Pomerantz' jauntily rhymed reworking of the story, which has Incisa's line-and-wash gingerbread boy coming home to stay for good with his grandmotherly creator.

Galdone has already proven many times over that he is perfectly at home with those traditional nursery tales that are still preschoolers' favorites, and his expressive, unassuming style just right for their very young audience. Here he takes us, with his runaway gingerbread hero, from the benign old couple's cottage through a country landscape that streaks by like the backdrop in a Western chase film. We must admit that his ogling threshers and mowers have less individual appeal than the typically Galdone-y loping cow, stuffed looking horse and ever-so-self-satisfied fox, but children will follow along breathlessly with every one of them right up to that last snip snap snip when the Gingerbread Boy goes ""the way of every single gingerbread boy that ever came out of an oven. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.