In a considerable change of pace, Cousins steps away from Maisy’s toddler-friendly world for short but briskly savage versions of several classic tales. Here the Little Red Hen refuses to share her bread with anyone, Foxy Loxy gobbles down Henny Penny’s companions one by one (though in a truly unjust twist Cocky Locky lives just long enough to warn Henny Penny away), the wolf’s head goes flying (bloodlessly) as the woodcutter frees Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother and the Third Little Pig is last seen nestled in a comfy chair, smilingly watching the Wolf boil to death. Along with crowd-friendly illustrations done in her customary bright colors and broadly brushed lines, the author adds big hand-lettered taglines (“Bye-bye, Wolf”) as cues for shouted-out commentary. Though the Three Bears look like teddy bears and as a concession to more pacifist audiences the author includes a severely compressed rendition of “The Enormous Turnip,” on the whole this lap-sized collection offers younger children an eye-opening cross-section of the far-from-innocuous world of folk literature. (Folktales. 3-6)
