SOMETHING FOR NOTHING

This visually chaotic version of an old folktale doesn’t work as a mild animal update. Bombarded by the incessant noise that surrounds his home in Bialystok, Dog moves to the countryside. His new little house is surrounded by “the blissful quiet of the country twilight”—until the middle of the night, when three rowdy neighborhood cats arrive in his yard to screech, yowl, break branches, and generally wreak havoc. Dog uses his wits to trick them into stopping. He convinces them that he loves the racket and pays them several gold zlotys to continue it over the next few nights, which leaves them unwilling to continue the service when he suddenly declares he’s out of money. They are too selfish to offer him “something for nothing,” and peace thus returns to his neighborhood. The watercolor paintings are busy, with no place to rest the eye and little indication about where to focus; even when Dog finds peace, the illustrations don’t. An author’s note says that this tale’s original version included people rather than animals and massacre rather than noise; the updated substitutions don’t ring true, and this Dog is too bright and imperturbable from the beginning to be an underdog. He’s a classic trickster character and would belong in a curriculum of trickster tales if there were not already so many better ones. (author’s note) (Picture book/folktale. 4-7)