Margaret Read MacDonald

When a wealthy man is set upon by thieves, and rescued by a "great smelly, slobbery, small-tooth dog," he promises his defender the choice of his many treasures. Refusing the man's multilingual fish, virtuosic songbird, and golden-egg-laying goose, the dog requests his beautiful young daughter instead. So begins a tale that falls into the same category as Beauty and the Beast and East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon - that would be tale-type 425C in the Aarne-Thompson classification system, show more for those who are interested - in which an enchanted prince in beastly form must be saved by the love of a young maiden.

I enjoyed this traditional English tale - which, to my mind, falls more on the East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon end of the spectrum, when it comes to this tale type - immensely. Although I found the narrative a little jarring at first (too many short, declarative sentences), I eventually adjusted to Macdonald's rhythm. The gouache illustrations by Julie Paschkis are bright and appealing, with some lovely details. I particularly liked the decorative endpapers, with their depiction of various herbs and plants.

Folktale enthusiasts will be interested to learn that this story has also been retold in picture-book format by the fabulous Kevin Crossley-Holland (Small-Tooth Dog), as well as appearing in Betsy Hearne's immense multicultural collection of Beauty and the Beast type tales, Beauties and Beasts. But whether one's interest is in comparing this to other tales of the same type (I'm in the midst of a Beauty and the Beast project myself, at the moment), or simply in reading it for its own sake, there is much in The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog to enjoy! show less

I love Margaret Read MacDonald. This story of a rabbit outwitting a lion, fox, and tiger begs to be read aloud and sung. Soon enough, you'll be wishing the dashing Tia Monica was feeding you until you are "Gordito! Gordito! Gordito!"

Charming adaptation, with a very good author's note. The Thai text is small, and is in its original script (not transcribed into Roman phonetics), but is pretty to look at. The illustrations are exuberant and expressive. I *love* the birds in the endpapers - nothing to do with the story, but they do establish context and are gorgeous. I really like how the adults, introduced right away on the copyright and title page, understand their role in encouraging the girl's vanity.

I will look for show more more by MacDonald; whether I find original stories or adaptations I'm sure I'd enjoy them. And I will definitely look for more art by Davis; maybe she sells prints of birds or something. show less

Everyone in this is kind of weirdly self-righteous and venial and there is a lot of scolding of the precocious little pot protagonist, but it still works.